Three hours deep into this one, Frida curled on my lap judging my color palette choices for a client's rebrand, when I realized something. My heart was racing. Not from the design deadline—from the stalker scenes. Irene Hannon had me white-knuckling my stylus like it was a weapon.
Here's the thing about romantic suspense with faith elements: it can go so wrong. Preachy. Heavy-handed. The kind of book where characters stop mid-crisis to deliver a sermon. But Deadly Pursuit? It threads that needle surprisingly well. The faith is there—woven into how Alison processes her trauma, how Mitch grapples with his past—but it never hijacks the tension. Time for Mercy pulls off a similar balancing act with moral complexity woven into legal drama without getting preachy. Abuela would have loved this one. She'd be clutching her rosary during the stalker scenes AND nodding along with the spiritual moments. That's the sweet spot.
When Your Pulse Becomes the Soundtrack
The premise is deceptively simple: Alison starts getting creepy phone calls and disturbing "gifts" from a stalker. Her detective brother brings in his partner Mitch to help. Romance blooms under pressure. But Hannon layers it with this slow-building dread that had me pausing my design work to just... listen. The stalker POV chapters are genuinely unsettling—you're inside this twisted mind, watching him escalate, knowing exactly what's coming while Alison doesn't. That dramatic irony? Chef's kiss for suspense.
The romance itself is a slow burn. Mitch and Alison circle each other with that "we shouldn't, but we're going to" energy. It's not spicy—this is inspirational romance, so expect closed doors—but the emotional tension is real. There's a scene where Mitch is just watching Alison sleep (protectively, not creepily) and the narrator captures this moment of quiet yearning that made me pause mid-brushstroke. After You destroyed me with similar moments of tender longing—the kind that sneak up on you when you're least expecting it. My heart. MY HEART.
Brian Hutchison: A Mixed Bag I Kept Reaching Into
Okay, real talk about the narration. Brian Hutchison has this warm, steady voice that works beautifully for the romance and suspense beats. When the tension ratchets up, his pacing shifts just enough to make your stomach clench. The emotional delivery during vulnerable moments? Solid.
But—and this is a notable but—he occasionally gets his character voices tangled. There were a few moments where I genuinely couldn't tell if I was hearing Mitch or Cole (Alison's brother). He'd establish distinct voices, then swap them mid-scene. It's not constant, but when it happens, you're yanked out of the story trying to figure out who's speaking. For an audiobook that runs over ten hours, that confusion adds up.
I found myself rewinding a few times, which... I never do that. I'm a one-speed, one-direction listener. The fact that I had to backtrack tells you something.
The Pacing Problem (And Why It Didn't Kill the Vibe)
Some sections drag. I'm not going to pretend otherwise. There are stretches in the middle where the investigation stalls and the romantic development feels like it's treading water. This is a rainy Sunday book, honestly—the kind where slower moments feel atmospheric rather than boring IF you're in the right headspace. But if you're looking for relentless thriller pacing? You might find yourself reaching for that 1.25x button during hour five.
I stayed at 1.0x because I was savoring the suspense peaks, and because Hutchison's emotional delivery deserves the full tempo. But I get why some listeners would speed through the valleys.
Your Vibe Check
If you love romantic suspense with clean romance and integrated faith themes—not performative faith, but the real, messy, "I'm trying to trust God while someone is threatening my life" kind—this is your book. If you need explicit content or can't handle any religious elements, skip it. If narrator voice confusion is a dealbreaker, maybe try the print version instead.
But if you're like me—someone who wants to feel something, who doesn't mind crying at a stalker reveal because the emotional stakes are that high—Deadly Pursuit delivers. Is it Hannon's absolute best? Some listeners say yes, others call it a dud. I think it falls somewhere in the middle of her catalog, but the middle of Irene Hannon's work is still pretty compelling.
Elena's Final Color Swatch
Three and a half stars. Maybe three-point-seven-five if I'm being generous. The story gripped me, the romance made me ache in that good way, and the suspense had me genuinely tense. But the narrator confusion and pacing issues hold it back from greatness. Worth a listen during a sale or through your library subscription. Not quite worth a full credit when there are tighter romantic suspense audiobooks out there.
Diego just knocked my headphones off my desk. Even he knows when I'm done.
