A certain subgenre has grown up over the last few years. Call it "vampire mystery" or urban fantasy or "horror fiction" or "paranormal romance". Stories set in a world that looks a lot like ours, but witches, vampires, werewolves, and other creatures exist among us, sometimes openly, sometimes not. The creatures have complex personal lives, generally sticking together with their own kind and treating gingerly with the other para­nor­mals. The hero (often, heroine) is not nec­es­sar­i­ly human and has close friends, lovers, and enemies who are vampires or werewolves or witches. In the best hardboiled tradition, the stubborn hero has a smarter mouth than is good for them.

Buffy is the best-known example on TV, but there are many books. Laurell K. Hamilton‘s Anita Blake series; Jim Butcher‘s Dresden Files; Kim Harrison‘s Rachel Morgan books; C. E. Murphy‘s Walker Papers; and so on.

Add Patricia Briggs to that list. Mercedes Thompson is an auto mechanic living in the Tri-Cities of Eastern Washington. A shape-shifter who can transform herself into a coyote, she was raised by werewolves in Eastern Montana.

When the daughter of her neighbor, the Alpha of the local werewolf pack, is kidnapped, Mercy gets involved. A fast-paced, com­pli­cat­ed, bloody plot laced with werewolf politics ensues, as Mercy tracks down the kidnappers.