Frost Burned

Oh Boy! I have discovered a fun new author, AND she has already published a bunch of earlier books, so I will be doing a lot of catching up. Patricia Briggs writes about the supernaturals being a parttially recognized segment of society--at least the werewolves are. The fae are questionable and the vampires are still.....in the closet. The most entertaining part of this whole book took place before I even read it. I opened the cover and there was a map--now I LOVE it when authors include maps of where the action is taking place. But what was too funny was that this was a map of the Tri-Cities in Washington state; that's right, Kennewick, Pasco, and Richland, which I never knew was such a hotbed of supernatural activity. Although I guess after the wildly popular Stephenie Meyer books made a thinly disguised Forks, WA on the Olympic peninsula such a "go-to" place for vampires and werewolves, it was bound to spread.
Mercy (short for Mercedes) Thompson is an auto mechanic, and also a shapeshifter, and a Walker ( I am not entirely clear what this means yet). She is descended from the original Coyote of American Indian lore. In this book she is married to the alpha wolf of the local pack, Adam Hauptman and so has acquired a teen-aged step-daughter in the bargain, Jesse. Jesse and Mercy are out shopping when they collide with a car and find they can't drive home. They are unable to reach Adam or any of the other pack members. Mercy discovers eventually that the entire pack has been kidnapped and she is forced to call upon others--fairies and vampires--to help her find them. But in the meantime, it appears that someone is trying to kill her as well. Mercy can help the pack escape remotely through her mate bond with Adam, and she uses it in heretofore unknown ways to pull the silver used to subdue the wolves from his body and thus restore him to full strength. After the pack has returned home, Mercy is asked for a meeting with the local vampire queen, who, it turns out, needs Mercy's unique skills in communing with the dead to fight off a take-over coup. In fact, the entire pack kidnapping and murder attempts on Mercy have all been part of this usurper's plans to gain control of the local vampire queen's territory and power. Mercy prevails and discovers in the process that she has skills she did not know about.
Great potential series read for lovers of the supernatural, and the locale makes it especially fun for those of us living in the northwest.