Fair Game

Fair Game (2012) Patricia Briggs

This is the third Alpha & Omega book.

Bran brought the wolves out into the light of the day, and Charles’ life has become a living hell. Any infraction that makes werewolves look bad is a death sentence–and the alphas keep pushing that duty onto Charles.

Bran was still ranting. “I cannot send an Alpha into another pack’s territory without it becoming a challenge that will spawn even more bloodshed. I cannot send you. I cannot send Samuel because my oldest son is even more at risk than you are. I cannot go because I’d have to kill every damned Alpha— and I have no desire to take every werewolf into my personal pack. If not Charles, then who do I send?”

Asil bowed his head to Bran’s anger. “That’s why you are the Alpha and I will do anything I can to never be Alpha again.” He stood up, head still lowered.
…
Asil left Bran alone with his thoughts then, because if he stayed, Bran would argue with him. This way, Bran would have no one to argue with but himself. And Asil had always credited Bran with the ability to be persuasive.

Asil is my favorite.

But we don’t get a lot of Asil her, sadly. But we do get one of my favorite side characters: Leslie.

Leslie learned two valuable things about the fae that day. They were powerful and charming— and they ate children and puppies.

I really like Leslie.

Though there was the occasional perfectly innocent computer geek or accountant, in her experience, consultants were quite often bad guys who had made deals so that the good guys could catch bigger bad guys: rewarding the smaller evil so that the big monsters got stopped.

Five people dead in the last month: an old woman, two tourists, a businessman, and an eight-year-old boy. A serial killer was hunting. She’d seen the boy’s body, and to catch his killer, she’d have met with Satan himself.

We also get Charles struggling to deal with his guilt over the executions he keeps being sent out for, and Anna struggling to get him to let her help.

Luckily, Bran has an idea (with perhaps help from Asil).

The FBI is interested in anything we can add to the investigation.”

“You’re sending me?” People instinctively wanted to please Adam. Charles was better at the destroy-and-subdue, not so good at the coax-and-charm.

“No,” said his da. “That would be dumb. I’m sending Anna. You are going as her guard.

Let me be clear: this is a very dark story. The serial killer they are hunting rapes and tortures his victims. The torture is off the page, but we still see the victims.

Luckily, there are plenty of lighter passages that help offset the darkness.

They were passed by a woman with a Pekingese coming the other way. Her little dog hit the end of his leash and started barking hoarsely at Brother Wolf.

“He’s perfectly friendly,” his owner said. “Now stand down, Peter.” To his owner’s obvious embarrassment, the dog growled, keeping himself between the werewolves and his owner in a brave but misguided attempt to protect her, until they were long past.

I really adore that passage.

The best thing about this story is I still remember how gobsmacked I was when I got to the end. The end is NOT a cliffhanger, but something happens at the end that drastically changes everything, and directly affects Mercy (in the parallel series). And as horrifying as that thing is, I’m still glad to see it happen.

Publisher: Ace
Rating: 8.5/10

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