Skinwalker by Faith Hunter
The fantasy shelves are rife these days with tough ladies fighting supernatural crime, but Faith Hunter delivers something original.
The originality of Skinwalker begins with Jane Yellowrock, the heroine. Jane is a loner and a smart aleck, but her similarities to the stereotypical urban-fantasy protagonist end there. Jane is a skinwalker — a shapeshifter drawn from Native American folklore — and she lives in a sort of symbiosis with “Beast,” the spirit of a mountain lion. Some chapters are narrated from Beast’s perspective and Faith Hunter does a great job of altering her style to fit Beast’s feline thought processes. Then there’s Jane’s strange past, mysterious even to Jane herself, and her deep-seated (but never obtrusive or preachy) Christian faith.
Jane is hired by Katie, a vampire and madam, to hunt down a rogue vampire who has been killing others of its own kind. In the course of her investigation, Jane discovers that this rogue may be something stranger even than an ordinary vampire. She also learns a few tantalizing hints about the origin of vampires. It seems that Hunter’s vamps may date back to the mystery cults of Rome (and I can’t wait to find out more of this backstory).
The plot of Skinwalker is fast-paced and adrenaline-filled. It moved a little slowly for me in the beginning, in part because of the complexities of vampire politics, and in part because I’m not familiar enough with either guns or motorcycles to fully appreciate Jane’s high-tech, lavishly-described gear. But as the climax approached, the action was nonstop and had me on the edge of my proverbial seat. Plus, I’ve got a soft spot for novels set in New Orleans. Hunter’s New Orleans is extremely vivid, from the beignets to the flood damage.
Readers who are tired of the more “romancey” urban fantasies may find something to like here. Jane becomes attracted to a few people, but romance is definitely on the back burner in Skinwalker.
Overall, this is an exciting, unusual urban fantasy, and I recommend it to readers looking for a butt-kicking heroine who’s a little different from the norm.
Jane Yellowrock — (2009-2016) Publisher: First in a brand new series from the author of the rogue mage novels Jane Yellowrock is the last of her kind — a skinwalker of Cherokee descent who can turn into any creature she desires and hunts vampires for a living. But now she’s been hired by Katherine Fontaneau, one of the oldest vampires in New Orleans and the madam of Katie’s Ladies, to hunt a powerful rogue vampire who’s killing other vamps…
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