Book #88 -- new record!

Iron Kissed
by Patricia Briggs

And the reason I read Blood Bound, of course, was so that I would remember enough of the prior events when I read Iron Kissed, the "new" one (Actually it's been on the shelf for most of a year). Since these are shortish books -- I love that I see under 300 pages as a shortish book and my students see anything over 10 pages as way too long to read -- I went straight from one to the other, breaking my usual pattern; but that's what patterns are for, isn't it?

This was a good one, better than Blood Bound. Because the key supernaturals in this one live up to their hype, unlike the mostly-likable evil vampires in Blood Bound. The Fae are mostly insular and private, wanting to keep their secrets and using their magic and an inhuman ruthlessness to accomplish that. But since humans now know about Fae, there's no way the Fae can live quietly enough to keep humans from sticking their noses into Fae business, because that's what humans do: when we discover a new animal, we need to observe and record it. When we find a new star, we need to map it, name it, and figure out its composition, color, strength, age, height, weight, and hair color. When we find a new element, we have to mix it up with other things to see if it'll explode. And, because our fascination with newness and our insatiable curiosity are results of our fear of the unknown, we also tend to form hate groups opposing the very things we have discovered. Like people who think of the snowy owl as an enemy, because it represents the conservationist movement. I mean: they actually hate a fluffy little owl. Along with the bleeding-heart liberals who protect it, but still.

So this one focuses on a string of Fae murders. Mercy is brought in to help investigate, because she has both a coyote's powerful nose and a human's mind and memory, and so she is an excellent scent tracker -- which makes sense. I also liked the comment that there are not many Fae who could do the same, because that was a gift mostly given to the beast-like Fae, most of whom are gone. Mercy figures out the culprit, and Zee and Uncle Mike, the two Council members who brought Mercy in, go to take care of the problem -- only to find the problem's already been taken care of, because the murderer's been beheaded. Uncle Mike vanishes, but Zee is left to take the fall for the murder of the murderer, and the Gray Lords, who have that wonderfully pragmatic and evil policy of sacrificing any individual in order to protect the group, want Zee to die in prison just after he confesses: an open-and-shut case.

But Mercy won't let it go. She investigates, and pokes her nose in, and fights for Zee even when Zee doesn't want her fighting for him -- Zee accepts the Gray Lord's absurd policy (Absurd because the line becomes ever more blurry over time: you sacrifice one person to save the lives of many, and then sacrifice two people to save the lives of five -- and then one to save one? Or you sacrifice one to save lives, then one to save homes, then one to save Christmas presents, and then one to save -- what, lawn ornaments? At some point you lose what you're trying to save.) and is willing to die for the Fae. Though I notice he didn't kill himself as the Gray Lords would surely have preferred.

And, of course, Mercy gets to the bottom of it. One of the greatest strengths of these books is in the climactic action sequences: the fight with Littleton and the hunt for Littleton's creator in Blood Bound, and the last few chapters in this one. They are a great strength because Briggs doesn't overdo it; as well as she writes an action scene, the character is not action oriented; she's a mechanic with a kinda screwed-up love life involving her neighbor and her roommate (I was also glad to see that resolve in this one, and now I'm eager to see where it goes from here). Mercy wouldn't be in the thick of things all day every day, and so she isn't; this book starts out with her watching Queen of the Damned with Warren and Kyle. But the final fight in this one was fantastic, both in terms of how Mercy wins, and also how Mercy suffers at the hands of the villain. And, of course, the resolution was fantastic, as well. And we also got to meet some seriously scary Fae, and Zee with his cloak off, which was super-sweet. It was a great book, and I will be reading more of these.

Oh, and as a side note: I have now read more books than I read in all of last year. Woot!