Government Agent Nola O'Grady and her partner Ari Nathan are back in LOVE ON THE RUN, book four of Kerr's urban fantasy series.

This time they become involved with a multi-universal agency whose anti-chaotic goals align with their own, but who have much cooler toys in their arsenal. Just in time, too, as Nola's teenage brother drags another family member off to a radiation-soaked version of San Francisco in search of their father and doesn't come home. It is up to Nola, Ari and their new associates to track them down and avert a series of schemes involving sentient carnivores, slavery and intelligent ephemeral squid. Not to mention the ominous peacock feathers.

I strongly recommend you read the previous books in the Nola O'Grady series. Perhaps you would not be completely lost if you started with LOVE ON THE RUN but Kerr's intricately constructed world deserves the depth gained by starting at the beginning of Nola and Ari's association. This urban fantasy series became a favorite of mine within the first few pages of book one, License to Ensorcell, and through the following three books my affection has only become stronger.

I first encountered Katharine Kerr through her Deverry series (written smack dab in the fantasy adventure genre.) and it has been supremely enjoyable reading her take on urban fantasy. Her world-building skills are honed and cleverly woven into not just our world, but the mirror worlds surrounding us. It is fascinating and amusing reading the twists history has taken to create the multiverse via Kerr's eyes. As always for me, though, it comes down to the characters, and in Nola O'Grady and her posse of relatives and friends Katharine Kerr has created relationships I look forward to furthering as the series continues. I highly recommend LOVE ON THE RUN.