Moon Called - Mercy Thompson Bk 1, Patricia Briggs

Mercy (Mercedes) Thompson is a mechanic who specializes in German automobiles (because if your name is Mercedes, you’re either a trust fund baby or you fix Bavarian cars). She lives in the Tri-Cites of Richland, Pasco and Kennewick at the neck of the Snake and Columbia rivers in Washington State and just happens to be a "skinwalker" capable of changing into a coyote with a preternatural nose for magic and scenting other creatures.

In a world that is aware of the existence of lesser fae, but unaware of vampires and werewolves (or shapechangers) Mercy is very firmly in the closet. The magical beings that are known live out their lives on reservations, and the werewolves in the nation are on the verge of making themselves known if they can figure out how to "come out’" on their terms.

Moon Called (Mercy Thompson, Book 1) begins with a young werewolf named Mac asking Mercy for a job. Knowing she should send him on his way but feeling sorry for him, Mercy gives him one. Mac has apparently escaped from a lab where he was being experimented upon. The laboratory wants him back and sends men to retrieve him. After Mercy kills one of these men, she knows that the only person who can help Mac is her next-door neighbour, Adam, who’s the local werewolf Alpha.

Mercy must go to Montana after finding a surprise on her doorstep and barely saving a severely beaten Adam. Adam’s fifteen-year-old daughter has been kidnapped, but before searching for her, Mercy knows that the only place Adam can be healed is in the hands of the werewolf clan that raised her: the clan of the Marrok, the Alpha of all North American werewolves, and where her first love Samuel is.

Ms. Briggs's humour is what keeps this story from falling into the trap of being bogged down in the shear numbers of supernatural creatures in Moon Called (Mercy Thompson, Book 1). The story is laid out well but is complex, nevertheless. You can definitely tell that there are more books in the series from the amount of story that is introduced in the first Mercy Thompson book. Ms. Briggs deftly transports you from scene to scene, and how smoothly she accomplishes this shows you what talented storyteller she is.

Fans of Sookie Stackhouse, novels will enjoy these books. Not only for their supernatural-meeting-the-real-world roots, but also for the humour shared between the two. This opening novel in the series has something for every fan of Urban Fantasy/Paranormal Romance genre: Supernaturals (Skinwalkers, Werewolves, Vampires, Witches, heh…Gremlins), beginnings of a love triangle (Mercy/Adam/Samuel) and a plucky heroine (with the best tattoos in the genre).

If you’re looking for a great series to start, (and a personal favourite) Moon Called (Mercy Thompson, Book 1) is for you. With the release of book four, the Mercy Thompson series shows no signs of stopping.

Moon Called (Mercy Thompson, Book 1) rightfully receives a Classic rating from me: 4 out of 4 Stars.

Ms. Briggs second book in her Alpha & Omega series Hunting Ground (Alpha & Omega, Book 2) is due August 2009.

Please make sure to visit her website.

Something From the Nightside - The Nightside, Book 1 - Simon R. Green

John Taylor (No, not the bassist for Duran Duran) is a down on his luck private eye. Well, a private eye of a sort. By the his own admission, he wouldn't know a clue if he tripped over one. He doesn't do divorces, insurance work or solve crimes. His knack is the ability to find anyone or anything...for the right price. He's been called a warlock and a magus, a con man and a trickster, and an honest rogue. Clients come to him only when they've exhausted the police and every other investigative agency.

Something from the Nightside (Nightside, Book 1) begins when the very rich, Joanna Barrett walks into his office with a case, to find her missing daughter, Catherine. One of the investigators she hired previously, the same who supplied Taylor's name, says that she can be found in the one place Taylor vowed he'd never go again. The Nightside.

The Nightside is the hidden dark heart of London. The official maps say the Nightside is only a square mile of narrow streets and back alleys. The truth of the matter is that the Nightside is the dark reflection of London and is quite a bit bigger. Holding all of the darkness and evil, the strange and unexpected, it dwarfs London proper. Coupled with those facts and that it's always three AM there, the Nightside is an apropos name on many levels.

Green begins his Nightside series here. Pushing his protagonist (hero isn't quite the word for John Taylor) back to the city of darkness that he grew up in and left to have a normal life. Well, that reason and the numerous assassination attempts upon his person. The majority of the denizens of the Nightside want him dead or worse, and always remember there are much worse things that can happen to you besides just dying there. He remembers that in that dark place you can buy or sell anything for the right price. Those memories course through his own nightmares still. Want to see a fallen angel burning inside of a pentacle of baby's blood? Perhaps a goat's head telling your future in iambic pentameter? How about a dead nun who will show you her stigmata wounds (if you have enough money you can even stick your finger in the holes)? Everything ever feared or dreamed in your darkest nightmares resides here.

Simon Green brings a wholly dark, terrifying and wonderful world to life in Something from the Nightside (Nightside, Book 1). The cast of characters are fully fleshed out and as real as they can be. You'll find yourself falling in love with the darkness that pervades here. It all begins here. Against all your better judgment you'll find yourself not wanting to leave and needing to know what happens next.

This is the first in the Nightside series, and consider yourself lucky that there are 8 more for you to read when it ends. Green's Nightside series begs for a movie version or perhaps a trade paperback. One might even go so far as to say they're Taylor made.

All of your nightmares live here, and they want you back.

Something from the Nightside (Nightside, Book 1) receives an Excellent rating, 3.5 out of 4 Stars but only because this is just the beginning of the tale.