In book three of the Jane Yellowrock series, Jane is adjusting to a job change from being a well-traveled vampire hunter for hire to settling in the Big Easy for the next six months, working for of all things, a vamp. Jane is easing into her new position as security specialist on retainer to the Louisiana Vamp Council under Leo Pellissier, the Blood Master of New Orleans. Leo has ordered a full upgrade of the security systems at the council headquarters.

As the book opens, she and Rick are closing down her old place and preparing to move her things to a new home in the French Quarter. This has been the most she's seen of Rick in recent weeks. His work as an undercover cop means his duties aren't ones he can share. She has her own secrets. She hasn't yet told him of her skinwalker powers, counting on the tattered and confused memories he retains of the night she saved him in beast form to keep him from asking too many questions she is not ready to answer.

The rogue skinwalker who attacked Rick was the only other one she had met, the only other like her in the world as far as she knew. In order to save Rick's life, she had to kill him, leaving her the last of her kind; or so she thought.

After packing all but a few of her things she wakes up to find breaking news on CNN. The BBC has interviewed an African claiming to be a Were-cat, a member of the Party of African Weres (P.A.W.) If it is true, and not an elaborate hoax could there be other forms of shapeshifter out there, other skinwalkers like her, as well? As the news continues, she learns not only are there other forms of were coming out of the woods, the leader of the Lupus Clan out of Cheyenne, Wyoming is accusing her boss Leo of stealing their hunting territory and murdering his grandfather. Cell phones ring, calling them back to New Orleans as quickly as they can get there.

Faith Hunter has created one of my favorite characters, ever. Jane Yellowrock is full of contradictions. Her childhood was spent mostly running wild as a bobcat, then she was raised in a Catholic orphanage, all the while living with the mind of a cougar within. The contrast between her good-girl soul and the Big Cat's amusement at any sort of guilt is one level of complexity, add in her public persona of a kick-ass killer who rides a bastard Harley (named Bitsy) and it only adds to the intrigue. As with the other books in the series, good and evil are far from clear-cut, with sympathetic villains, and many fascinating characters with shades of gray. Highly recommended.

Book Summary

Jane Yellowrock is a shape-shifting skinwalker - and a vampire killer for hire. But lately she's found herself taking blood money from the very vampires she used to hunt...

Things are heating up in the Big Easy. Weres have announced their existence to the world, and revived the bitter tensions that run between them and their old enemies: vampires. As a trusted employee of Leo Pellissier, Blood Master of the City, Jane finds herself caught in the cross fire.

When Jane is attacked by a pack of marauding werewolves, she is thankful for the help of a mysterious stranger named Girrard. He explains that he used to be Leo's "Mercy Blade," a sacred position charged with killing vampires who have gone insane. What Jane doesn't know is why this powerful assassin left New Orleans - or, more troubling, why he's now returned. It's definitely not to make Jane's life easier...

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