Review: "The Mailman" by Andrew Welsh-Huggins

 

The Mailman by Andrew Welsh-Huggins Mysterious Press, 2025     The Mailman, by Andrew Welsh-Huggins—best known as the author of the seven books in the Andy Hayes, P.I. series—is a peddle-to-the-metal thriller with a nod to Jack Reacher but with a wholly original character in freelance deliveryman, Mercury Carter. While delivering a package to attorney Rachel Stanfield, Merc finds Rachel and her husband, Glenn, being questioned, tortured really, by four men looking for Stella Wolford, the complainant in a seemingly meaningless wrongful termination lawsuit against Rachel’s corporate client. Rachel hasn’t seen Stella since her deposition weeks earlier, and Rachel has no idea where Stella lives. But the men, led by the menacing Finn, are determined that Rachel can tell them where Stella is hiding. Merc reacts quickly—and very un-deliveryman-like—and incapacitates two of the men before Finn stands Merc down by threatening Rachel and Glenn. Finn, with his entourage, leaves Merc and Glenn behind and takes Rachel as a hostage. With Glenn in tow, and a hunch Finn is going after Glenn’s daughter at a Chicago boarding school, Merc goes after the kidnappers with a single verbalized goal: his night won’t be over until the package is delivered to Rachel. The Mailman is a multi-layered chase thriller—there are a bunch of moving parts that are handled marvelously by Welsh-Huggins—with a handful of surprises and a likable, if somewhat stiff, hero. Merc’s backstory, including his motivation to help people, is told in short and interesting snippets in the first half of the narrative. The action moves across the Midwest, from Indianapolis to Chicago and places in-between, without much importance of the where—instead it is the what and the why of the villains’ activities (and Merc’s reaction to them) that give the tale interest. The Mailman is a nail-biting escapist thriller with twists and whirls and everything else the genre promises. It’s damn fun, too.

Check out The Mailman  on Amazon—click here for the Kindle edition and here for the hardcover.