Smoke Bitten

This may be my favorite volume of the Mercy Thompson series. Mercy and the pack faced credible threats and legitimate, relatable worries that couldn't be easily vanquished.

It opens with our favorite coyote shifter in her garage, nattering with Tad and Zee. We quickly learn that all is not well in paradise, but Mercy is holding her concerns annoyingly close to her chest. When she returns home, she enters in the midst of a dust-up between her mate and his daughter, precipitated by one of the pack members. We quickly learn that there's some sort of problem between Mercy and Adam, which is somewhat shocking after their closeness throughout most of the series. She's blamed for the trouble despite not having been there, so she leaves to go to her new/old house next door.

While in her place, she encounters the ghost of her neighbor on the other side of her property, which is a shock since that neighbor isn't known to be dead. She heads for the home that neighbor shared with her husband at a run when she hears a gunshot. Only heroes run toward gunfire!

At the neighbors' home, she finds the husband dead from a self-inflicted gunshot. He also has what looks like a rabbit bite with smoke rising from it (hence the title) and the feel of strange magic on his skin.

There are more threats and villains that come in quickly after that, but I won't spoil it for you. Many of Mercy's powerful allies are sidelined quickly, leaving her and the pack to face the multiple menaces alone. The conflict between Mercy and Adam helps to flesh out their relationship. The plot moves along very quickly, which is wonderful except for the fact that it led me to gulp the book down and now it's over. I'm considering re-reading the entire series now, which is highly unusual for me.