Dead Heat

Dead Heat is the fourth book in Patricia Briggs's Alpha and Omega series, the urban fantasy spin off from her better known Mercy Thompson novels. The Alpha and Omega books are set in the same world as Mercy Thompson and feature crossover characters, but the central pairing is Charles Cornick, the enforcer son of the Marrok who leads all of the werewolves in North America, and his mate Anna Latham, an Omega wolf whose particular gifts make her one of the most unusual werewolves in the entire series.

In Dead Heat, Charles takes Anna to Arizona to visit an old friend, a horse breeder and former federal agent named Joseph Sani. The visit is meant to be partly a vacation and partly an opportunity for Anna to meet someone Charles has known for decades and to see a different corner of his long life. The vacation gets complicated when a fae creature begins targeting children in the area, with the kind of malice that suggests she has a personal grudge against Charles and Anna's circle of friends. The book moves between the family weekend at Joseph's ranch and the slow building danger as the fae's plan unfolds.

Patricia Briggs writes urban fantasy with the kind of careful world building and character work that has made her one of the most respected names in the genre. The Mercy Thompson and Alpha and Omega series share a common world but each focuses on its own central character, and the dual track structure has let Briggs explore corners of the universe that the main Mercy series did not have room for. Charles is a particularly interesting Briggs hero, ancient and dangerous and quiet in ways that contrast with the more verbal protagonists of a lot of urban fantasy.

For longtime Mercy Thompson and Alpha and Omega fans, Dead Heat is a satisfying entry that develops both the relationship and the wider mythology. For new readers, the Alpha and Omega series can be picked up with its first novella Alpha and Omega, then Cry Wolf as the first full novel.