Reviewed for MonsterLibrian.com’s Werewolf Month

Ace Fantasy, 2008
ISBN:9780441015665
Available: New and Used

Coyote walker Mercy Thompson has faced killer werewolves and has gotten mixed up in vampire feuds, but in Iron Kissed she is roundly told to keep out of fae business. Her friend and mentor, Zee, is being set up for the murder of a cop (who wasn’t exactly innocent), by the local cops, and the Gray Lords are willing to sacrifice Zee to keep fae secrets hidden. But Mercy refuses to abandon her friend, no matter what everyone around her says, or what it might cost her.

This is possibly the darkest Mercy book so far. Still reeling from the events at the end of the last book, Mercy is questioning herself and her actions. This book takes her to terrible places, where the reader might have trouble following her. Briggs expertly portrays the fae in the tradition of Grimm’s fairy tales, complex creatures that despise humans, except as toys, but are strangely dependent on them.

Iron Kissed and the other books in the series are recommended for public libraries, and for private collectors who like dark fiction, but might be tired of the familiar tropes of horror.

Reviewed for MonsterLibrarian.com’s Werewolf Month

Ace Fantasy, 2007
ISBN: 9789441914736
Available: New and Used

There’s something almost soothing about Mercy Thompson, mechanic and skinwalker, adopted werewolf and friend to the fae. She’s the kind of urban fantasy heroine who can walk through a door without some sort of power challenge. She keeps a junked out car in the middle of her yard to disturb the local Alpha’s view, “forgets” to tell people things to avoid fights and uses their own training, body language and tempers against them.

In the second book in the series, Mercy’s vampire friend Stefan asks for her help, and ends up dragging her into one of the darkest plots imaginable. Briggs pulls no punches, pitting the almost sweet, barely supernatural Mercy against a demon-possessed vampire whose very presence threatens the emotional control of vampires, humans, werewolves and fae. Mercy has to step up and find the vampire and his maker before more people die, particularly the people she’s come to care about.

Blood Bound is a solid supernatural mystery shot through with veins of true darkness and a collection of odd and intriguing characters. The Mercy Thompson books already have an established audience who should be pleased to find this one included in the library stacks. Recommended to public and private libraries.