Patricia Briggs - Soul Taken

The vampire Wulfe is missing. Since he’s deadly, possibly insane, and his current idea of “fun” is stalking me, some may see it as no great loss. But, warned that his disappearance might bring down the carefully constructed alliances that keep our pack safe, my mate and I must find Wulfe—and hope he’s still alive. As alive as a vampire can be, anyway.
But Wulfe isn’t the only one who has disappeared. And now there are bodies, too. Has the Harvester returned to the Tri-Cities, reaping souls with his cursed sickle? Or is he just a character from a B horror movie and our enemy is someone else?
The farther I follow Wulfe’s trail, the more twisted—and darker—the path becomes. I need to figure out what’s going on before the next body on the ground is mine.

Comment: This is the 13th installment in the Mercy Thompson series by author Patricia Briggs. I have been a fan of the series for years - well, mostly, the author's writing - and it seems as if it's one of those series that could last forever... I just wonder if that is, indeed, the author's goal... I suppose it sells well, otherwise she might have other plans... who knows....

In this novel, Mercy and Adam and the rest of the pack are having some fun when they are told Wulfe is missing and he needs to be found, or else. As Mercy and others investigate, some entity disguised as the villain of a horror movie is killing people and, it turns out, a specific type of people. While it isn't immediately obvious what is happening, since the pack is responsible for the well being of those who now live in the Tri-Cities, it's up to them to help those who need and to do that, they have to catch this new enemy, as well as find out what happened to Wulfe... will Mercy and Adam be able to defeat one more enemy?

Once again, I have to say these books should not be read as stand alone, because even if that is possible, I do not think it could be very rewarding, since so much only makes sense when one has previous knowledge of past events. I say this but I must also confess I easily forget some things and sometimes there are references I'm thinking "what is this about?" but my enjoyment of the novels does not cease.

These books follow a certain pattern: Mercy and those around her are involved in some situation, often dangerous or concerning people/beings not always that friendly, and they must fix it by apprehending or killing something/someone. In this story we have all of this, for they have to find Wulfe and bring him back to the vampire seethe and they must also kill a new enemy who is, himself, killing innocents. Of course, no full-blown reader would be surprised these two things are connected...

In terms of plot and writing, nothing to fault this author with and I believe I've repeated myself countless times in all the other comments I've done about the previous books by her, but she is truly talented. Mrs Briggs does have a perfect way to combine character development and imagination and the significant amount of detail on lore and world building she has amassed in all the years her two major series have been published. Even if I don't remember something from another book, somehow she writes it in a way that it all makes sense anyway.

This said, I was again engrossed in reading this and turning the pages, mostly to find out who the new enemy was and why was he killing people. The explanation for this is actually quite simple but as always, things only make sense after all the clues are placed together. I suppose I could say that the base of the series - these paranormal beings in the world and all the little things and the complexity of their existence working along with humans and so on - seems to get more and more intricate and I fear that there won't be an end to the problems Mercy faces... I wish things could settle down somehow... but, of course, then the series would/might lose its identity.

Two interesting novelties in this book, kind of: we learn Sherwood's identity and we learn who will likely be the next villain to defeat. How would these things play out, that is the question, although Sherwood's identity was quite intriguing. Perhaps not as much for those fans dedicated to theories and such... as for the bad guy, he is definitely annoying and I would love if these bad guys wouldn't be given so much time on the page nor importance. I'm one of those readers who would prefer the series to get into something quieter or more focused on inner issues than facing terrible enemies all the time.

All things considered, this was another good installment, perhaps not as full of twists and sudden things as other have been, but for a fan there's some kind of comfort in what to expect from this world.

Grade: 8/10