I keep on saying with [author: Patricia Briggs] that she shows promise, but has yet to realize and, and in this one I feel she's closer to that than ever. The characters are such that you'll forget they aren't real, which is the bright line for me between 'passable' and 'good' writing.

Yet another girl-and-a-gun against-the-unseen-world book, Mercedes Thompson's mother had a one night stand with a rodeo rider with a coyote belt-buckle, and nine months later, she figured out he might have had some secrets when her infant daughter turned into a coyote in the crib.

A werewolf story where the protagonist is a coyote is new. She's a were-coyote, of course, or a skinwalker, as she calls herself. Her transformation isn't like the wolves', but she's never met another being like her, so she considers them the nearest thing to an extended family. It probably helps that she was raised by one when her mother decided she was unequal to a daughter who was occasionally a coyote.

I like that Mercy is a coyote, and not a wolf. It's easy to romanticize wolves, but this is what a coyote looks like: intelligent, yes, but not precisely noble. Unlike some supernatural-girl-power books, Mercy doesn't talk about how tough she is, she sees herself as good at not being noticed and good at avoiding conflict.

I am a little bit concerned that this book appears to be setting itself up for the 'woe is me, many sexy men are attracted to me, how shall I live!?' conflict, based on some of the men introduced in this book, but I'm definitely interested in getting my hands on the next one.

A note on the cover: it's horrible. I have this image of some production meeting-

Boss: "What's this lady, Indian? How are we supposed to tell? Give her some kinda indian-y tattoo, or earrings or something. And sexy her up, I can't even tell if she's a girl or a teen boy in those coveralls."

Editor: "But now it looks like a book about a truck-stop waitress, not a gothic tale of supernatural!"

Boss: "Put some wrought iron on it. Nothing goths up a cover like wrought iron. Oh, and can we have a couple more kinds of fonts on the cover? It looks too plain."

With regards to her Native American father, I'm not sure how well it's handled. Mercy was, literally, raised by wolves, so she's not been introduced to any aspect of Native American society or culture, and doesn't seem to feel a need to investigate it. Her life is pretty full already, so I guess that's fair.