The suspense in the story was pretty good but there was very little romance. The plot was complex with so many characters that I frequently had trouble keeping everyone straight and it seemed everyone had such tragedy in their life. Detective Malcolm identifies a victim from her bones then learns she recently hired attorney Angie.
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Everything I said about Senseless I could repeat about Merciless. The romance happens very late in the book, though in this one there is much more of a cat and mouse game between Malcolm and Angie. There’s very much a "boy likes girl so he dips her pigtails in the ink" vibe about it. I haven’t read enough of Burton’s work to know if this late-in-the-game romance is a signature of hers or if it has just worked that way in these books. The crime in this one is a little less personal than the previous book, or at least it starts out that way. And again, the book is missing that sense of place I was looking for — I didn’t even remember that it was supposed to be taking place in Alexandria, Virginia. But overall, it’s still an entertaining story. Burton is capable of dreaming up some pretty sadistic killers. ( )

MERCILESS takes up quite nicely where SENSELESS ended. This book continue with the story of Angie Carlson and Eva Rayburn. More background information is provided into Eva's father, as well as Angie's father, and we get to see their sibling relationship evolve into a more adult relationship. Angie is the center of this story and we also get to see more into her character, why she is the super-achiever, and learn more about her fears and insecurities. Of course the thriller aspect is very well presented in the serial murder of women associated with Angie. Angie's antagonistic relationship with Detective Kier leads to a semi-romance. There are enough twists and turns to make this an interesting read that definitely delivers. All of the characters are well developed and presented in realistic situations. A good weekend or vacation read.
The only negative aspect to this story is that the relationship between Angie and Malcolm doesn't really evolve from a sexually antagonistic one into a romantic one [SPOILER ALERT] but they still wind up becoming engaged at the end. Not quite sure how that happened. They only had a couple of dinners together, a one-time sexual encounter and a few meetings at a bar or the police station. Oh well...at least we get the happy ending. ( )