Thursday 8 September 2011

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.
~~~oOo~~~

10 comments:

Kailana said...

Did you see that the new Mercy book isn't out until 2013? That is a really long wait for me considering I read River Marked when it came out... There is a new book out in her other series, though, which has also been a long wait.

Cath said...

Kelly: Oh no! I'd better wait a while before I read River Marked (intriguing title) then. Or I'll get a bit shaky needing a Mercy fix. LOL. Of course I haven't read the other series yet so I can have fun with that in the meantime.

Carl V. Anderson said...

I really need to try this series at some point. I am in awe of each hardback as it comes out and Daniel dos Santos tops himself with the cover illustrations. I'd like to have them simply for that, but the stories sound really fun too.

DesLily said...

oh no! not *another* series!! lol
goodness 2013 for the next book? I think I'll pass! lol

It won't be too long and I will finish Miss Peragrine's home for Peculiar Children! hooray book 2! lol...you sound like you had a grand day Cath!!!

Cath said...

Carl: The stories are excellent. But yes, I do like the cover art as well. I have 3 of the American ones by DdS, and 2 of what I assume are the British ones. I much prefer the American and may change the 2 Brit ones at some stage.

Pat: Can't wait to hear what you think of Miss Peregrine. My local library has a copy but it was out when I went looking for it the other day. Hopefully it'll be in soon so I can read it for RIP.

Yeah, I got to relax and read some scary short stories today. Three good ones. Might be Monday before I can write about them though as J and S might be with us for the weekend again.

My Gallery of Worlds said...

Oooh this does sound like a fun series. Really enjoyed this review :D

Susan said...

Oh I'm so glad you liked the book and Mercy Thompson! I think she is my favourite of the urban fantasy series currently out there. I am waiting for River Marked to be out in softcover, then I will be all caught up :-) I am thrilled you enjoyed it so much, Cath. You have some really good books (and events, and things!) coming up!

you're right, even though I don't like the model's tattoos, the covers capture the air Mercy has, the toughness and the woman underneath, too. I love that she is a shapechanging coyote, and find that realistically done too, which I really enjoy.

Cath said...

Oh Kelly, you would *so* love this series!!!

Susan: Mercy is definitely my favourite paranormal/urban fantasy type series. Not that I read that many but still. Everything about them is just so good. I'm happy that I still have a couple of books to read before the wait for a new one.

Shelley said...

I'll admit this series sounds like it's a little out of my comfort zone, but you make it sounds pretty good. Maybe I'm ready for an adventure!

Cath said...

Shelley: to be honest I don't read a lot of paranormal romance type books myself. But I make an exception for this series as they're not actually that romantic. Plus the writing is so very good.