Product Description

Anna Latham didn't know how complicated life could get - until she became a werewolf. And now she's not just part of any pack, but under the direct supervision of Bran, leader of the North American werewolves. And her mate is his son Charles, the pack enforcer. With all the advances that have been made in forensics, the werewolves will not be able to hide their existence from humans much longer - and Bran wants their coming out party to be on his terms. But his European counterparts don't see things the same way. Anna and Charles are chosen to represent Bran at a key meeting. But when a French werewolf, one of Bran's most vocal opponents, is found murdered, Charles's reputation shoots him to the top of the suspect list. And among the wolves, there is one penalty for breaking the law: death. The killer must be found, or Charles will take the fall.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #27520 in Books
• Published on: 2009-10-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

About the Author
Patricia Briggs graduated from Montana State University with degrees in history and German. She worked for a while as a substitute teacher but now writes full time. Patricia Briggs lives in the Pacific Northwest.

Customer Reviews

The wolf and the man
Imagine if the werewolves were considering coming out of the fur coat closet, and held a conference to debate it.

It's a rather boring-sounding idea. But since Patricia Briggs is a truly brilliant urban-fantasy author, she is somehow able to spin straw into gold in the second full-length novel about the Omega werewolf Anna and her Alpha mate Charles. "Hunting Ground" is a solid little bundle of subplots and warring supernaturals.

Sent to the Seattle conference, Charles and Anna encounter lycanthropes from across Europe -- Russians, Italians, the British lord Arthur, and he savage Beast of Gévaudan, Jean Chastel. Warring opinions and old grudges (plus Chastel's general savagery) cause plenty of tension between the various groups, and Charles finds that while Anna's Omeganess eases some of the conflict, she's freaked out by all the dominant males.

But Anna is attacked while shopping with her new friend Moira -- by a gang of vampires using werewolf magic and tactics. And then Arthur's wife is brutally killed by the same gang, and someone murders Chastel. Now the fragile peace between alphas starts to unravel and fae magic starts to manipulate them -- and to save his beloved Anna, Charles must uncover who is mad enough to do all this.

The previous "Alpha and Omega" stories have been about the world of werewolves almost exclusively, and "Hunting Ground" expands its focus -- we've got the cruel fae Dana, and a cruel gang of vampires. But the focus is still mainly on werewolves -- their subculture, their leaders, and the place of the Omegas when surrounded by a bunch of grumpy Alphas.

The biggest flaw is that the book is a loosely woven affair without much central plot until the last few chapters. But Briggs smoothly juggles the various subplots that run through the book, with vivid, powerful prose ("A creek full of fat trout trickled under a thin layer of misty ice") and slightly tongue-in-cheek dialogue ("Way to kill a defenseless net"). Not to mention some unique quirks, like a werewolf who genuinely believes he is King Arthur reborn.

And she strikes a solid balance between the darkness and violence (bloody killings, werewolf hunts, and some brutal human killings) and the more quiet, soothing moments that Anna brings. One particularly lovely scene has her soothing frazzled alphas through a mellow piano performance, and Briggs' smooth writing carries the effect through to the reader.

Anna and Charles may be mates and spouses now, but they're clearly still getting used to each other. Anna is now strong enough to stand up to the Beast and recovered enough to show her love for her new hubby, but Charles is struggling with his tough-guy image and his "Brother Wolf." And there are plenty of other interesting characters -- the unassuming Angus, the bloodthirsty psychopathic Jean, a cute Austrian Omega, and the charming, loopy Arthur. There's even a pair from one of Briggs' short stories: the werewolf Tom and his blind witch mate Moira.

"Hunting Ground" has a rather loosely woven plot, but Patricia Briggs' lovely writing and vivid characters keep it from losings its way. Definitely one of the better werewolfcentic urban fantasies.

Better than original
After the hard time I had with the original tale in this series I decided to give the second novel a go as most of the ground work had been accomplished in the original and I was hoping to see how the characters would grow within their relationship. Whilst Mercy is more action driven, this series is more the emotional romantic aspect of the supernatural genre allowing mellowness that some might think is missing from Mercy's outings.

This time, now that they're married, the two characters are still "feeling" each other out emotionally as each seeks a way to make sure that they're respecting the others boundaries and trying to demonstrate their own individualities to the other so that their partnership can grow stronger. Its well written, the characters do grow but I have still not shaken that feeling that I had from the previous offering about the inner strength of likeability to do with these two. As secondary characters, they would be acceptable, intriguing even, but I am still not sure that they are truly alpha material to be honest. It is stronger than the original; the script flows better but at the end of the day Mercy will remain my favourite series by Patty.

Getting Better But...
Well Anne and Charles are still dull dull dull, but there is a bit more in this book to like than in the first one. The urban setting provides a better plot, containing as it does all the supernaturals, but overall it again fails to leap and bound off the page at you in the exuberant way that Mercy and her cohorts do. Again very little info about the powers of an Omega so why create an Alpha/Omega series? I will only be flicking through this series in book shops from now on and save my pennies for the Mercy Thompson books. grumble grumble!