As DEAD HEAT begins, Werewolves Charles and Anna Cornick
have traveled to Arizona to buy a horse as a gift for
Anna's birthday. Charles has a longtime human friend who
has a horse farm there, and he also wishes to make a long
overdue visit. After they arrive, they find his old friend
Joseph dying, and his werewolf son tries to talk Charles
into changing Joseph into a werewolf, something Joseph
will
have none of. Although he has a number of family already
werewolf, Joseph wishes to die as he lived, a human. Soon
after arriving for their visit, Charles and Anna are
pulled
into the case of a fae who is stealing children to enable
him to live off of their essence. When they investigate
further, they find themselves drawn into the stories of
the
people they are interviewing about the disappearances of
the children.
DEAD HEAT is a quiet, understated story; and very much
character driven. More than just the case they are working
on, it is a look into Charles and Anna's life a few years
down the road from their mating. Anna has changed so much
from the broken wolf Charles fell in love with. She is
stronger in ways that continue to amaze Charles, and
coming
into her own as an omega wolf and as a woman. As to
Charles, he is learning to appreciate life more, and the
people who have touched his life over the years. Being
over
400 years old, werewolf born and the pack enforcer,
Charles
has lost touch with humanity to a large degree. Anna
changed that, bringing a breath of fresh air into his
staid, rigid life.
The pacing of DEAD HEAT is a little slower than other
books
in the Alpha and Omega series. I enjoyed this and
felt it
fit the story; but many readers used to faster and more
action packed UF may struggle a bit with the slow,
deliberate pacing. This is a lull before the impending Fae
War; and I think the next book will be fast and hard-
hitting as the issues with the fae finally come to a head.
Author Patricia Briggs also woven fascinating stories
about
the secondary characters involved in the case, and outdid
herself with the wonderful storytelling and character
insights. Briggs constructed painstaking backstories of
the
characters previous interactions with the fae and how it
is
coming back to haunt them years later. There is also the
meticulous research into to world of horse breeding and
training that Briggs uses to bring this world to the
reader.
DEAD HEAT is the fourth book in author Patricia
Briggs Alpha and Omega series. This is an engaging
story
in an always excellent UF series. DEAD HEAT can be read
standalone for the story itself, the background of Anna
and
Charles is intriguing, but not necessary to follow the
storyline as presented. DEAD HEAT is a highly recommended
UF story in a highly recommended series.
For once, mated werewolves Charles and Anna are not
traveling because of Charles’s role as his father’s
enforcer. This time, their trip to Arizona is purely
personal—or at least it starts out that way...
Charles and Anna soon discover that a dangerous Fae being
is
on the loose, replacing human children with simulacrums.
The
Fae’s cold war with humanity is about to heat up—and
Charles
and Anna are in the cross fire.
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