Patricia Briggs, Frost Burned

93. I've enjoyed all of Patricia Brigg's Mercy Thompson books--and this one was no exception. I was first drawn to this urban fantasy series because of the setting (I have family who live in the Tri-Cities area of eastern Washington--and my mom grew up not far from there), but it's hard not to love Mercy, who's fierce and smart and loyal and vulnerable in surprising ways.

Frost Burned opened with Mercy shopping with her step-daughter Jesse at Black Friday sales. And yes, it's just as funny as it sounds. The humor doesn't last, though, after Mercy and Jesse are involved in a minor car accident--when Mercy tries to contact someone in her husband's werewolf pack to find them up, she can't find anyone. And when she reaches through the pack bonds to find Adam, all she knows is that he's hurt.

Turns out, the pack has been kidnapped--and the kidnappers aren't above targeting the pack's loved ones as well. Desperate to find Adam before things get worse, Mercy turns to an unlikely group of allies to help her.

The last few Mercy books have been a bit slow--still good, but not as as tight as I'd like--this one, however, is Briggs back at the top of her form. Maybe it was because the danger this time was so personal, or because the villains were unexpectedly interesting . . . I'm not sure. But this one is definitely a keeper.