Moon Called

This is the first book in the Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs. I recently read the latest book (Frost Burned) in this series and liked it so much that I decided to go back and read the series from the beginning. It is always more interesting to me to see how a character develops as well as which characters make return appearances and what significance that has over time. Mercy is a mechanic for German cars, and a shape-shifter (coyote) and walker, descended from the Native American Coyote of lore and legend. She knows very little about the extent of her powers, beyond being able to change form, in this first book. What we do learn is that she was raised by a pack of werewolves in Montana and returned to her mom and step-father (along with a slew of step-siblings) when she fell in love and planned to elope with the son of the pack's alpha. In her mind, they abandoned her and she has never been back. However events conspire to send her speeding (or at least driving as fast as a VW Vanagon can go) back there when a newly converted werewolf comes to her for help and is then murdered and the neighboring werewolf alpha, Adam Hauptman, is also severely injured and left for dead. Maybe worse is the fact that Adam's human daughter, Jesse, has been kidnapped. Mercy know she does not have the skills to cope with Adam's injuries or his recovery and she does not trust his pack, fearing someone may have betrayed him in a bid to take over. While in Montana, she reconnects with the long-ago love of her life, Samuel, who is sent by his father to accompany Mercy and Adam back to the Tri-Cities and see if they can find out who attacked Adam and killed the young werewolf. We also get to see the preliminary stages of Adam's attraction to Mercy.
The plot is pretty twisty but the action never stops and the characters are great. This is a totally absorbing and fun read if you like the supernatural. Along with werewolves, we also get to meet Mercy's friend Stephan, a vampire, as well as the queen of the local vampire Seethe. And a master metal smith and fairy, Zee, helps Mercy out with the loan of a magic dagger. Highly recommended series so far.