Smoke Bitten

I just finished this latest comulsively readable installment in the "Mercy Thompson" series by author Patricia Briggs (see lots of reviews in my blog for the earlier books). Native American VW mechanic Mercy Thompson has a shop in the Tri-cities area of Washington state. She was trained by the previous owner of the shop, Zee, and prides herself on never driving a new car. Mercy is also a shape-shifter, the daughter of Coyote, the bringer of chaos. She can turn into a coyote at will. But as this series evolves, Mercy is continually discovering new powers. Mercy is surrounded by supernatural beings--the Fae, vampires, witches, werewolves, goblins--and she is in fact mated to the head of the local werewolf pack, Adam Hauptman. Mercy is also unique in being able to smell when magic is being used, and is apparently immune to its effects. Oh, and she can see ghosts and talk to dead people. Enough background.
Mercy discovers that her former neighbors, an elderly couple, have been murdered and that magic was involved. Then she is attacked by a crazed rabbit and nearly dies. Turns out  the rabbit's body had been taken over by a creature variously referred to as the smoke beast or the smoke dragon, which has escaped from Underhill and uses its possession of various beings to gain greater power for itself when the beings die. When two of Mercy's friends are also bitten and possessed, she realizes that she may be the only one who can hunt down and destroy this monster. In the meantime, a rogue band of werewolves are openly threatening to take over Adam's Columbia Basin pack. Adam is also struggling with the aftereffects of a witch's dying curse. Although you would enjoy reading this book on its own, you really have to start with the first book (Moon Called) to get the full flavor of all the characters and relationships