Storm Cursed

Storm Cursed (2019) Patricia Briggs

Mercy is called when a rogue goblin is noticed by a farmer–a goblin who looks like on wanted for the murder of a policeman. Mercy takes Mary Jane and Ben with her–but also is smart enough to call Larry, the goblin king, to come deal with his wayward subject.

The video of the incident was all over the news,” I began, but paused when Larry glanced my way for a hair’s breadth. Long enough for me to see the odd expression on his face.

“And people say humans don’t have magic,” he muttered,

But this is only the start of Mercy’s long day, as she is called out to deal with another problem.

“Miniature zombie goats,” I corrected. “Or miniature goat zombies. The ‘miniature’ is important. ‘Zombie goats’ just sound satanic.”

One of the hard things about these books is that this series has such a wide cast of characters, all of whom are well-developed, it feels like something is missing when we don’t spend time with Warren or Jessie or any of the other characters who we’ve come to know. That said, I’m glad she doesn’t pad the stories out, trying to let everyone make an appearance, but, well, I kinda miss Warren.

We do, however, get Zee.

“I have not had much to do with witches. In the old days, if one became troublesome, I killed them. Mostly they died off on their own before I felt the need to bestir myself.”

One of the things I like about Mercy is that she is well-aware of her own fragility, and the danger she is in, playing with the big monsters. So she tries her best to be safe. We see that her with her continual calls to Adam and Warren, letting them know where she is, when she expected to be finished, etc. She doesn’t go things alone, which is good, because as Coyote’s daughter, she attracts danger.

“Son of a bitch,” I said.

“He is, I suspect, no one’s son,” Gary said apologetically. “Created rather than born. What’s he done?”

“Interfered,” I said.

“For good or ill?”

“I can’t tell,” I said. “I’ll let you know if I survive. I’ll call you tomorrow.”

One of the other things I liked about this story was how politics and legal shenanigans can cause problems.

“A contract with a small government project gave the US government access, not to Hauptman Security, but to ‘Hauptman Security and all of its adjunct personnel’— which is a phrase that snuck into our government contracts about two years ago so it didn’t raise any flags.”

“The pack isn’t adjunct to Hauptman Security,” I said.

“You’d think that, wouldn’t you?” Adam agreed. “But on this ten-thousand-dollar contract, on page forty-eight, ‘adjunct personnel’ was defined as anyone under my aegis.”

One always needs to read the fine print.

We get Wulfe in this book, and as much as he is a trul chaotic neutral character, I do enjoy reading about it.

So a good addition to the series.

Publisher: Ace
Rating: 8.5/10

• Browse the archives:
  
• The October Man » »
• « « Sorcery and the Single Girl