Former Army Ranger Van Shaw is out of money, and struggling to keep on the straight and narrow. When an old contact shows up on his doorstep, fresh out of prison and claiming to know the whereabouts of a hidden stash of gold, Van feels the powerful pull of his past. The trouble is, some things are too good to be true . . .

If my grandfather's letter had stopped at the comma, I would have tossed it in the trash... I would have mentally told the old man to stick it, if it hadn't been for the last three words. If you can... Van Shaw was raised to be a thief, but at the age of eighteen he abruptly abandoned the illicit life and joined the US Army, leaving behind Seattle and the grandfather who taught him the trade. But after ten years of estrangement, Van's grandfather has suddenly asked him to come home. He does so, only to find his grandfather shot in the head and bleeding out on the kitchen floor. While the police focus on Van as the prime suspect, he plunges back into an underworld he had vowed never return to, putting his criminal sensibilities back to work to ferret out the attacker and unearth the shocking secret of why his grandfather called him home after so many years. But in a violent, high-stakes world where the lines between right and wrong are easily blurred, Van finds that the secrets held by those closest to him are the deadliest of all.

When an old crony of Van Shaw's late grandfather calls in a favor, he embarks on a journey deep into the remote forest of the Olympic Mountains in search of a missing girl tied to his own criminal past. Discovering a brutal murder scene, Van finds himself caught between a billionaire businessman on the one side and vicious gangsters on the other. In an attempt to survive Van will have to face some of the toughest questions of his life, not least over his relationship with his iron willed girlfriend, Luce. But with the clock ticking, a desperate Van may just need every ally he can get, especially as someone prepares to unleash a firestorm on Seattle that could burn them all to ashes.

When Van Shaw receives a distress call from his fellow Afghan War veteran, Leo Pak, he has to leave the urban hazards of Seattle to head far south to a town called Broken Ridge, deep in the wild heart of rural Oregon.

Leo faces charges of murdering a local gun dealer, and while Van doesn't doubt his friend's innocence, he knows he faces conviction. As Van starts his own covert investigations, the small town is suddenly awash with Army Ranger veterans, converging for a raucous annual Rally. Was it only this reunion that brought Leo to town? Or is someone at the Rally setting Leo up to cover for their own dark designs?

Helping a fellow veteran accused of murder, Van Shaw is drawn into a dangerous labyrinth involving smuggled opioids, ruthless mercenaries, and deadly family secrets that will challenge his notions of brotherhood and justice in this riveting thriller from Anthony, Macavity and Strand Critics Award-winning author Glen Erik Hamilton. When his friend Leo Pak is arrested on suspicion of murder and armed robbery, Van Shaw journeys to a remote Oregon county to help his fellow Ranger. Van had been Leo's sergeant when they served with the 75th Regiment in Afghanistan, and back in the States, Leo had helped Van when he needed it most. Arriving in the isolated town of Mercy River, Van learns that his troubled friend had planned to join a raucous three-day party that dominates the place for one weekend each year. Attended by hundreds of former and active Rangers, the event is more than just a reunion; it's the central celebration of a growing support network called the Rally, founded and led by a highly decorated Special Operations general named Macomber. But there's more going on in Mercy River than just a bunch of Army hard cases blowing off steam. The murder victim--the owner of a local gun shop where Leo worked part time--was dealing in stolen heroin-grade opiates. Worse, the town has a dark history with a community of white supremacists, growing in strength and threatening to turn Mercy River into their private enclave. The cops have damning evidence linking Leo to the murder, and Van knows that backwaters like Mercy River are notorious for protecting their own. His quest to clear Leo's name will stir up old grudges and dark secrets beneath the surface of this secretive small town, pit his criminal instincts against his loyalties to his brothers in arms, and force him to question his own belief in putting justice above the letter of the law. Glen Erik Hamilton creates crime fiction that pulsates with emotional intensity and is "as much fun to read as Lee Child's Jack Reacher" (J. A. Jance). In Mercy River, Hamilton highlights the unique and powerful moral struggle inherent in Van Shaw's iconoclastic character--an honorable man torn between upholding the law and breaking it to save innocent lives. Action-packed, riveting, and powerful, Mercy River is a novel that goes to the heart and soul of what it means to be a hero in a corrupt and punishing world.