Review: Fun Novella Set In Elder Races World
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 03 23, 2012
Really enjoyable novella in Thea Harrison's Elder Races series.  I love visiting Harrison's alternate world with shape-shifting animals (the wyr), dark and light fae, vampires and other creatures set in present day.Gideon Riehl, a wolf wyr, has retired from Wyr Lord Dragos Cuelebre's army where he was the alpha captain of Dragos' dogs of war.  He is in the prime of life (at around 100 years old) and could have stayed decades longer in service but feels adrift, with a need for something new. He takes a position as a detective in the Wyr Division of Violent Crime in New York, where he reports to Dragos' sentinel Bayne.  He is investigating a serial killer who preys on a particular type of wyr shifter (won't spoil which kind).  This brings him into contact with 35 year old wyr Alice Clark, a school teacher and a potential victim.  The villain of this story isn't too difficult to figure out and our killer is most definitely brought to justice by the end.  The real fun in the story is the sweet relationship that quickly develops (they are wyr after all, they know when they find their mate) between Gideon and Alice.  Gideon hasn't had much in the way of kindness or gentleness in his life and it's wonderful to see him so in awe of Alice and do his "hopscotch skip straight into the land of crazy" over her. Alice is very likeable as well: pretty, smart and capable.  They make a great couple and their HEA was very satisfying.  Harrison introduces a deck of tarot cards into the story that find their way into another of her Elder Races novellasNatural Evil, very, very loosely linking the stories.What is particularly nice about this novella is that we get great new information on Elder Races culture, some of their winter solstice traditions through the Festival of the Masque and learn more about the Seven Primal Powers. Bayne has some nice scenes and we even catch a tiny bit of Dragos and Pia (fromDragon Bound (A Novel of the Elder Races)).  All in all, a very entertaining read.