What is the title of your latest release?
THE DELIVERY
What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?
In this ticking clock thriller, the latest attempt by freelance mailman Mercury Carter to make a simple delivery goes awry when he stumbles across a missing woman whose fate is tied to a major criminal conspiracy.
How did you decide where THE DELIVERY was going to take place?
I have long wanted to base a novel in and around Providence, Rhode Island, our home for a few years in the 1980s and a place we have enjoyed visiting since. It’s a rich and diverse city with a colorful mob history.
Would you hang out with Mercury Carter in real life?
We would definitely take in some baseball games together.
What are three words that describe Merc?
Determined, focused, capable.
What’s something you learned while writing THE DELIVERY?
Some scary things about the vulnerability of personal information stored by health care institutions such as hospitals.
Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?
I begin each day reading over pages I wrote the day before, which I lightly edit before starting new material. Once the first draft is done, it undergoes several edits.
What’s your favorite foodie indulgence?
Spicy ramen.
Describe your writing space/office!
A converted upstairs bedroom filled with books, framed photos and art, and memorabilia (such as a brick with a plaque commemorating the 1967 opening of the public library in my hometown of Lima, New York), and co-occupied by a parakeet and an occasional cat or two. Somehow, they get along.
Tell us about when you got “the call” – when you found out your first Mercury Carter book, The Mailman, was going to be published. Did you know it would be a series?
The call in this case was an email from my agent informing me that Mysterious Press was offering me a contract for THE MAILMAN (very exciting). I had a good idea it would be a series, partly because I’d already published several short stories featuring Carter.
You write in the mystery and thriller genres. Are these your favorite genres to read? What other genres do you enjoy?
I read a lot of crime fiction, including thrillers, psychological suspense, and private eye novels. I also read a lot of memoirs, horror, some sci-fi, some literary fiction, and narrative nonfiction.
What authors do you admire in these genres?
Among authors whose new books I never miss are Connie Berry, Michael Connelly, S.A. Cosby, Harry Dolan, Stephen Graham Jones, Steve Hamilton, Laura Lippman, Attica Locke, Walter Mosely, Ann Patchett, Karin Slaughter, Lisa Unger, Sarah Weinman, Colson Whitehead, Robin Yocum, and many more.
Is there a particular book or several books that changed your life? Why and how?
Two books that come to mind are Robert B. Parker’s Spenser novel PROMISED LAND, and Lee Child’s MAKE ME. Both are virtually perfect novels that contain everything I love about the private eye and thriller genres respectively, and both were big influences.
What’s your favorite movie?
I’m not a big repeat movie watcher, but I never turn down a chance to watch The Sting, which doesn’t have a single false note in it and feels utterly fresh fifty-plus years on.
What is your favorite season?
Autumn, hands down. I have an October birthday (as do several relatives), I began dating my wife of 45 years in a long-ago October, and came of age running cross country in the fall, a magical time to be out of doors.
How do you like to celebrate your birthday?
Dinner out, maybe with a show.
What’s a recent tv show/movie/book/podcast you highly recommend?
Show: Season Four of True Detective with Jodie Foster
Movie: Dead of Winter with Emma Thompson
Book: THE AWARD, by Matthew Pearl
Podcast: The Wedding Scammer.
What’s your favorite type of cuisine?
Pasta, pasta, and more pasta.
What do you do when you have free time?
Read, run, cook, hike, play piano, watch TV, listen to live music, spend time with family, and read some more.
What can readers expect from you next?
My novella, RESCUE ME, the latest adventure of my Columbus private eye Andy Hayes, a former Ohio State quarterback turned investigator, will be released in June.
THE DELIVERY by Andrew Welsh-Huggins
Mercury Carter #2
Freelance courier Mercury Carter races against time and across New England to rescue a trafficking victim in this new thriller from the author of The Mailman.
Merc Carter is not your typical deliveryman. A former postal inspector, he specializes in moving sensitive or dangerous packages—of all sorts—from point A to B. And sometimes he needs his gun to do so. Carter’s current mission leads him to Providence, Rhode Island, but his delivery is interrupted when he comes across a woman badly injured in a car wreck in the pouring rain. Then a man with a gun appears warning Carter away from the scene and Carter leaps into action, disarming the attacker and rescuing the crash victim.
Just as Carter thinks the danger has passed, he discovers a deeper mystery stemming from the crash, a deadly puzzle involving a memorable pair of grifters, a crooked ex-cop, stolen identities, human trafficking, and murder. And it appears that Carter’s next assignment will put him right in this conspiracy’s perilous center . . .
The follow-up to last year’s acclaimed hit, The Mailman, which launched the Mercury Carter series, The Delivery is a fast-paced, unpredictable thriller following a memorable protagonist whose resourcefulness is matched only by his quick wit and determination to never miss a delivery.
Mystery Private Eye [ The Mysterious Press, On Sale: March 24, 2026, Hardcover / e-Book / audiobook, ISBN: 9781613167175 / eISBN: 9781613167182 ]
Buy THE DELIVERY: Amazon.com | Kindle | BN.com | Apple Books | Kobo | Google Play | Books-A-Million | Indie BookShops | Ripped Bodice | Libro.fm | Audible | Walmart.com | Amazon CA | Amazon UK | Amazon DE | Amazon FR
About Andrew Welsh-Huggins
Crime novelist Andrew Welsh-Huggins is the author of the critically acclaimed Mercury Carter thriller series and the Shamus Award-nominated Andy Hayes private eye series.
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