REVIEW: ‘Iron Kissed (A Mercy Thompson Series)’ by Patricia Briggs

Iron Kissed by Patri­cia Briggs, pub­lished Jan 2008, is the third book in the Mercy Thomp­son series, pub­lished by Ace.

VW mechanic, Mercy Thomp­son, is a shape shifter. She is a walker who shifts from human to coy­ote at will.  In the world that Mercy inhab­its, the were­wolves, fae and vam­pires exist along­side humankind. 

How­ever, the fae and the were­wolves have been some­what forced to make their exis­tence known to the pub­lic.  In Iron Kissed, the fae call in a debt from Mercy and she must deliver. There have been numer­ous mur­ders in Fairy­land and her men­tor, Zee, wants her to help him “sniff” out the killer.

In this entry, we learn more about the world of fairyland. We learn that the fae are a secre­tive bunch who choose to keep to themselves. Since being outed to the pub­lic, they now live on reser­va­tions.  The  laws in fairy­land are swift but not always just. There is a hier­ar­chy of power within their com­mu­nity where there are var­i­ous types of fae who have a cer­tain degree of power and who would like to remain unno­ticed. At the top of that hier­ar­chi­cal power struc­ture are The Gray Lords who rule fairy­land and it’s inhab­i­tants. The fae are very pro­tec­tive of their secrets and are will­ing to sac­ri­fice one of their own to keep them that way.

There are sev­eral inter­est­ing sub­plots that sup­port the main plot of the story. For instance, there is the choice that Mercy must make between two suit­ors: Dr. Samuel Cor­nick who is a med­ical doc­tor and the son of the Mar­rok. The Mar­rok is the leader of all the were­wolves and they are led by Bran. They also raised Mercy with the pack before she struck out on her own. Then there is Adam Haupt­man, the Alpha of the Colom­bia Basin Pack, who has already declared Mercy his “mate” with­out her per­mis­sion. Mercy’s reluc­tance to choose between the two men has led to a weak­ness within the pack’s infrastructure. The pack is rest­less and their leader is short-tempered. The pack con­tinue to remind Mercy that she must make a deci­sion soon.  

Then there is the social issues and pol­i­tics about the super­nat­ural com­mu­nity that I enjoy the most. Like humans, the were­wolves and fae have to deal with the hate groups, the igno­rance and big­otry and if any­body gets out of line, there’s some­one to help with dam­age con­trol. Magic and folk­lore play a sig­nif­i­cant role in this series and is inter-weaved nicely to help solid­ify this won­der­ful world that Briggs has cre­ated. Mercy is a great nar­ra­tor. Her pos­tur­ing and maneu­ver­ing within the super­nat­ural com­mu­nity is a dan­ger­ous bal­anc­ing act. She is knowl­edge­able of folklore, having a degree in his­tory. She is often use­ful in her coy­ote form because of her sen­si­tive nose and is often pro­tected by Adam’s pack when trou­ble comes call­ing. Despite being help­ful, Mercy often finds her­self knowl­edge­able of sen­si­tive infor­ma­tion regard­ing the super­nat­ural com­mu­nity that will always put her in harm’s way.

Iron Kissed was a quick read. Brigg’s fans shouldn’t be dis­ap­pointed. Mercy does choose her man in the end so no more going back and forth. There’s plenty of action, monsters, pol­i­tics and dark magic to burn the mid­night oil late into the night. On the softer side,  you have flirt­ing and kisses with some “heat” but no explicit sex scenes. Read­ers learn a lit­tle bit more about Zee that goes a bit beyond the “glamour.” And then there’s Mercy her­self, who has to deal with the emo­tional after­math toward resolution’s end. The mys­tery of “who shot John” wasn’t ter­ri­bly dif­fi­cult but then that didn’t bother me.

This is yet another strong entry in the Mercy Thomp­son series with one major plot point resolved.  I’m sure faults can be found if one were to look closely enough. How­ever, I was too engrossed in the story to notice them (if at all). New read­ers, this book can stand alone but if you’re inter­ested in read­ing the first book in the series, it is Moon Called and after that, Blood Bound. As a for­mer Lau­rell K. Hamil­ton fan, I am quite pleased to be engrossed in a well writ­ten and well struc­tured urban fan­tasy series that blends the ele­ments of fan­tasy with real­ity almost seamlessly. My grade A.

You may pur­chase this book in ebook or paper for­mat on Jan 2, 2008.

Tech­no­rati Tags: Patri­cia Briggs, Fan­tasy Reviews, Fairy­land, Werewolves

For Fur­ther Reading

• REVIEW: ‘Blood Bound (A Mercy Thomp­son Series)’ by Patri­cia Briggs
• REVIEW: Moon Called by Patri­cia Briggs
• My TBB List or Nov­els Worth Mentioning
• REVIEW: On the Prowl by Briggs, Wilks, Chance, Sunny
• REVIEW: ‘Liv­ing Dead in Dal­las’ by Char­laine Harris
• TBR Day: Danc­ing With Were­wolves by Car­ole Nel­son Douglas
• REVIEW: Iron­side by Holly Black: A Mod­ern Faery’s Tale
• REVIEW: Valiant by Holly Black
• REVIEW: Tithe by Holly Black
• GUEST REVIEW: Prey (Shifter Series No.4) by Rachel Vincent

Tagged as: fae, Love Triangle, Mercy Thompson Universe, Patricia Briggs, supernatural creatures, TriCities, Urban Fantasy, werewolves