The Scary Reviews

Genre: Crime Fiction
Length: 164 Pages
Publisher: Crime Wave Press
Release date: May 26, 2018
Synopsis: Mercie Hillbrook lives a simple, quiet life working as a gas station attendant. Then her parents are killed. Her home is taken. The people responsible are excused for just doing their job. When an attempt to get justice her way lands her in trouble with the law, Mercie realizes she still has something to lose: her own life. Then she finds reason to believe her parents were murdered… and she doesn’t care anymore.

Review copy provided in exchange for an honest review as part of Rachel’s Random Resources book tour

Her Name is Mercie has four short stories and the first is quite longer. The longer story, Mercie, was about what happened when a person made a string of bad choices. Basically, life got the better of her and she went to jail. I thought Mercie was a good character and most of her actions felt pretty on point, but a few interactions didn’t hold true for me. I thought there was too much time spent describing her time in jail. Plus, quite a few rough transitions, overly used phrases and overly descriptive scenes. Overall, I enjoyed the story and it took some interesting turns, but I think it should have been shorter and would have benefited from some extra polishing.

In contrast to Her Name is Mercie, I loved the story Re-Pete. It was a dark and disturbing story and I thought it was an exceptional piece of writing. It was off and running from page one with a solid dialogue written from a child’s viewpoint. The story had great pacing and I really dug what Chris Roy was putting down. I had to know what happened with Pete. I loved Pete’s backstory and the story was well done from start to finish.

Marsh Madness was another very polished piece of writing with the flow and feel of someone who has been working their craft for some time. Chris Roy set the scene and quickly got his story moving. What I really liked was not knowing where the story was headed and getting an antagonist who was creepy and unsettling. The end of the story made me want more. I would have loved to see this short tale lengthened to a novella. If crime fiction is a genre you enjoy, give Chris Roy a shot. I think you’ll find his work unique and worth a read.

Link to purchase Her Name is Mercie

Praise for ‘Her Name is Mercie’

Roy delivers on the edge of your seat storytelling with rough edges, crooked cops and a tiny light at the end of the tunnel that is never quite extinguished. 

— Tom Vater, co–founder of Crime Wave Press.

Her Name Is Mercie is a fast furious ride into an inferno of the highest tension you are likely to encounter this year. Where noir meets thriller, toss a coin. Dive in. And unplug your phones, pcs tablets and keep reading deeper and deeper, until the final pages.

— Richard Godwin, author of Apostle Rising.

Chris Roy, Biography-

Chris Roy was raised in South Mississippi, in the midst of ugly Gulf Coast beaches and spectacular muddy bayous.

Chris lived comfortably with the criminal ventures of his youth until a fistfight in 1999 ended tragically. Since January, 2000, he’s been serving a life sentence in the Mississippi Department of Corrections.

Nowadays he lives his life of crime vicariously, through the edgy, fast-paced stories he pens, hoping to entertain readers. When he isn’t writing, he’s reading, drawing or looking for prospects to train in boxing.