Bone Crossed

I finished my first book for Carl's R.I.P. VI challenge a few days ago but not had a chance to review it... things being rather stressful and busy here at the moment. But I have a free afternoon, almost, so thought I'd have a go at a brief review of Bone Crossed by Patricia Briggs, which is book 4 in her Mercy Thompson series of books.



Mercy Thompson is a car mechanic, but she is also a 'walker'... a human who can turn into a coyote. Not only that she is mated - in name but not in fact - to Adam Hauptman who is the alpha male of the Tri-cities werewolf pack. Mercy has discovered that her kind have a talent for slaying vampires and were almost olbliterated by European vampires when they moved to the North American continent some centuries ago.

The problem for Mercy is that she has upset Marsilia, the queen of the local vampire seethe, by killing one of her own, a vampire who was constructing monsters for a pastime. One night her garage is vandalised and some weird crossed bones are painted on the doors. Realising it might be best to make herself scarce for a while, Mercy goes to visit Amber, a school friend, who has asked Mercy to check her house out as her son feels it's being haunted by a vindictive ghost. What may or may not complicate matters is that the area where Amber and her family live is ruled over by a lone vampire who is very powerful and very territorial... one, James Blackwood.

Arriving at the house Mercy is dismayed to find that the guest for dinner that evening is none other than James Blackwood. Is he in someway responsible for the haunting in Amber's house? When she wakes the next morning and finds she's been bitten by a vampire but can remember nothing of it, Mercy knows she has a problem.

Hard to think of anything to say that I've not already said about this wonderful series. Patricia Briggs is very good at writing engaging characters like Mercy, but also enigmatic ones such as Adam, her mate, or downright dangerous ones such as Blackwood. She injects suspense and humour and makes it seem effortless, though I'm sure it is not. I like the mix of various supernatural beings, werewolves, vampires, the fae... who I think are particularly interesting... and Mercy herself of course. Some of them have come out to the world at large and some have not and it's quite fascinating to see how the author deals with this as regards the plots of her books. I foresee much more trouble ahead. At least I hope so as I love reading about Mercy's adventures and want more! I have one more book to read in paperback and I think another is now out in hardback. Brilliant. Can't wait and will probably read the next one, Silver Borne, for this challenge in a week or two.
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