Iron Kissed-Patricia Briggs

Iron Kissed
Patricia Briggs
Ace, Jan 2008, $7.99, 304 pp.
ISBN 978044105665

The werewolves have come out of the closet (at least the woods) to let the humans know they exist. The Grey Lords forced the fae to reveal themselves as well. Because they are so powerful, they live on reservations guarded by human security. Mercy Thomas, a walker (a shapeshifter who turns into a coyote) is asked by her friend and mentor Zee to come to the reservation to see if she can scent out the killer of various fae.

One scent is present at all the killings sites, the human guard O’Donnell. When Zee and his and Mercy’s friend find him, he is being torn apart by an unseen person. Zee asks Mercy to leave; the next thing she hears is Zee has been arrested for O’Donnell’s murder. He is not talking to the human authorities and doesn’t want Mercy to interfere but she won’t let her friend be tried for murder because the fae especially the Grey Lords think that will make the problem of human fearing the fae go away. She investigates on her own and gets caught in the trap that was set for the killer.

If Mercy didn’t have enough to worry about, the time is coming where she will have to choose Sam or Adam, the alpha of his pack as her mate. Sam was her friend who hurt her very badly and Adam is a domineering possessive werewolf who won’t let Mercy get away from him. The well plotted mystery contains plenty of suspects but nobody will guess who the killer is because the culprit hides in plain sight giving everyone, including the audience and Mercy, the impression of being a sweet and kind person. IRON KISSED is a wonderful urban fantasy combined with an exciting amateur sleuth mystery.

Harriet Klausner