With her instincts telling her Anhelm is being framed, Kat sets out to clear his name and find the true culprit behind the vicious crime. As the investigation deepens, Kat delves into a complex web of betrayal and revenge in the most powerful pack in the city. Time is running out for the city as the delicate peace between species teeters on the edge of chaos.
Kat doesn’t believe Anhelm killed the alpha, but the evidence keeps pointing back to him and she’s under pressure to wrap up the case. Anhelm’s life is on the line as the powerful shifters in the city demand justice for their fallen alpha. Will Kat succeed in unraveling the intricate case in time to save Anhelm or will he be thrown to the wolves?
Comment: I became aware of this book's existence while browsing a certain list of recent releases (well, from last year, I mean) and since I like shifter stories, this one caught my eye.
In this book we meet shifter cop Kat Kale, and the story begins with her being called as soon as the news of the murder of the wolf pack alpha become known. Kat knows this will create havoc among the shifter communities and things only get worse when the prime suspect is Rafe Anhelm, also a cop. The issue is that Rafe is human and should not have had the ability to kill the wolf alpha, so something else is going on. As Kat investigates to save the life and the reputation of another cop, even though they had never gotten along before this happened, she discovers something else might be in play to frame Rafe. The problem is to discover what before it's too late...
As it happened with the book I read right before this one, I got interested in this one because the blurb made me think the story would be a certain way and that thought alone was enough to convince me to try. However, sometimes impulsive decisions might not go as well, and if I had investigated better, I might not have gotten the book. The issue is that, between creating expectations and not investigating as much, so that spoiler details don't come across unintentionally, the final experience might not be as great as I imagined. Therefore, this shifter story was fine, but not what I imagined it would be.
This is the first book I try by this author and I had no idea about her writing style. In this regard, I cannot say the execution was bad, for the plot follows a pretty linear investigation, not complex, but with enough elements to make it seem solid. In fact, I would more easily compare this story with a cozy mystery and not to any other more traditional shifter story one would label in the PNR or in the UF genres. With this I mean, the point doesn't seem to develop the world building nor the characters; this book felt as if it was all about the plot and how things got there.
Sadly to me, the shifter aspects of this world - which often captivate me in shifter stories - seem to be a given. From what I understood, humans and shifters co-exist but don't get along. Kat is a cop and works for the shifter branch, while there is a simultaneous human branch. They interact but depending on the crimes, they don't fall into the same hierarchy. It sounds confusing but in the story this isn't explored that much. The fact the whole plot is about a human possibly killing a shifter is the real issue and if proven, it would seriously affect the professional relationships between all parties.
As one can imagine, this isn't as simple, and as the investigation moves along, we learn things about the suspect and other secondary characters that allow for some plot twists. Reading this story wasn't anything special, I'll confess, but it was pleasant enough because of the shifter details and because I was curious to find out who the real killer was. It's obvious it isn't Rafe the cop. Unfortunately, none of the characters are developed beyond the basics and they are all simply playing a role. I feel the goal of the author wasn't exactly to write a story about complex relationships and personalities and this means that, to me, while the book was readable, it wasn't memorable nor as appealing as I wanted.
I was also led to believe, by the blurb, that while Kat and Rafe were enemies at work, the fact she investigates the case to help him would suggest that something more between them might happen. Oh, my romantic colored glasses! Reading romance for so long means I see romance even when that is not the actual point and from the chapter I was disappointed that Kat even had a girlfriend. Their relationship isn't on the page and it doesn't have much focus, so I hoped perhaps things would not be as simple but, since there is no character development whatsoever, Kat and Rafe don't become a couple or anything like that.
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