Bone Crossed (Mercy Thompson, Book 4) (Hardcover)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: snow elf, pack magic, crossed bones, Uncle Mike, Mary Jo, James Blackwood (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Briggs makes a well-deserved move into hardcover with the rousing fourth adventure for kick-ass were-coyote auto mechanic Mercedes Thompson. Healing in body and spirit after the events of 2008's Iron Kissed, Mercy is preparing to marry alpha werewolf Adam Hauptman when an old friend asks her to help fend off a nasty ghost. It's a good time for Mercy to leave Portland, Ore.: vampire queen Marsilia is after her and her vampire friend Stefan for successfully hunting down a monster that should have killed them. Mercy leaves Adam to negotiate peace with Marsilia and heads to Spokane, Wash., to investigate the ghost, an unexpectedly complicated task. Though action supersedes characterization, the preternatural culture of vampire seethes and wolf pack politics is deeply intriguing. Briggs provides plenty of detail about Mercy's complex world without boring info-dumps, satisfying both new and longtime readers. (Feb.)
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Review

"In the increasingly crowded field of kick-ass supernatural heroines, Mercy stands out as one of the best."
-Locus

"The best new urban fantasy series I've read in years."
-New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong

"I love these books."
-New York Times bestselling author Charlaine Harris

"Top-notch paranormal mystery."
-Publishers Weekly

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 309 pages
• Publisher: Ace Hardcover; First Edition edition (February 3, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0441016766
• ISBN-13: 978-0441016761
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (170 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #5,752 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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• This is item 4 in The Mercy Thompson Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

55 of 57 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Continued realism and excellent writing, February 5, 2009

By	J. Hulet "Fantasyliterature.net Reviewer" - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The Fourth Installment in the Mercy Thompson series is a direct follow-up to Briggs well-written Iron Kissed (Mercy Thompson, Book 3). Mercy is still dealing with the many problems in her life and trying to recover from a horrific assault that was the climax of the previous book. The situation is ripe with opportunities for the author to wave a magic wand and make things all better, but Briggs doesn't and my respect for her writing climbs as a result.

Mercy is coping and dealing with her new role as the mate of the local Werewolf pack. She is still suffering side-effects of previous events, but that doesn't mean that she's giving up. Briggs does a great job of keeping the story moving, introducing the next elements of the story and mixing in how the recent changes in her life require Mercy to re-evaluate and adjust. It's wonderful because too many authors don't bother to address these issues. Many authors in this genre let change happen and everything magically work out with any real effort by the main character.

Life keeps giving us problems even when we might wish otherwise and Briggs doesn't let Mercy rest. New issues continue to creep into the story and past choices by supporting characters come back to haunt Mercy and her friends. It's neat to see an author who is willing to let the Main Character actually cope with the second and third order effects of having broken with tradition and made enemies in previous stories. It's not like Mercy is just on a non-stop wheel of pain, it's just that Briggs doesn't let her just skip through life without paying the bill for being the agent of change that she often has been.

The story is not terribly long and Briggs doesn't cover tons of new ground, but there is still plenty to absorb. Complications between inter-species conflicts remain a central theme of Mercy's life and her relationship challenges don't simply fade away. Again, this effort by Briggs to keep a certain ethic of reality enforcement really deserves high marks because it increases the level of realism in a genre not known for it. Briggs deserves a lot of credit for keeping both feet on the ground while leading us on another exciting chase through an Urban Fantasy world that is as well-developed as any I have read.

70 of 76 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Part of the pack, February 4, 2009

By	E. A Solinas "ea_solinas" (MD USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

"My soul was a lot more battered than my body, but I couldn't see it in the mirror. Hopefully nobody else could either."

Patricia Briggs put her werecoyote heroine Mercy Thompson through the grinder in the past, complete with a brutal rape. "Bone Crossed" has Mercy dealing with a slew of new personal problems -- plus some very nasty vampire politics. It's a pretty busy story, but Briggs juggles the subplots -- and Mercy's internal troubles -- with unusual deftness.

A week after Tim's death, Mercy and Adam are trying to hash out the whole Alpha-mate situation, when a couple of unexpected guests arrive -- her mother, and a tortured, starved Stefan. Mercy destroyed Marsilia's right-hand man Andre, and the vampire has retaliated by almost killing Stefan and by roundabout attacks at the wolf pack (including a crazed snow elf).

To make matters worse, Mercy investigates a haunting at her old college buddy Amber's house... and discovers that the freakishly powerful vampire called the Monster is manipulating Amber. Stefan decides to take some drastic action to protect Mercy from other vampires... but it may not be enough to keep her safe from her new enemy.

Patricia Briggs has always had a knack for giving a unique spin to the staples of a genre, and fortunately "Bone Crossed" shows no diminishing of that. Instead, Briggs ties a bunch of subplots into a complicated knot, and slowly unravels it as Mercy discovers the answers to all the various mysteries. All through it, she continues to juggle the subplots without dropping them.

And Briggs' smooth, detailed style is well-suited to Mercy's world, which is described with mellow humor. Lots of chilling moments (including a claustrophobic climax with Blackwood), but also some warmer moments with Adam and Stefan. And she never lets a tense plot get in the way of some tongue-in-cheek humour ("what kind of stupid person puts white carpet in a house frequented by werewolves?").

Having dropped a big trauma on Mercy, Briggs also devotes some time to exploring how this has affected her heroine -- panic attacks, unease with touch, and the new way people regard her. But fortunately Merry never becomes an emo victim, nor does she just "get over it" out of sheer determination. She works on this gradually, and Briggs does it with utmost sensitivity.

Adam serves as the rock to cling to, since he is trying to support and heal Mercy in her time of need, although he goes overboard on the protectiveness early on. And poor abused Stefan goes through the wringer both physically and mentally -- although he has some lighter moments, such as debating the merits of Scooby-Doo vs. Dragonball Z with a deaf boy.

"Bone Crossed" is a pretty brilliant urban-fantasy/mystery, with plenty of chills, humour and a likably down-to-earth heroine. Patricia Briggs does it right.

44 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Angieville: BONE CROSSED, February 3, 2009

By	Angela Thompson "Angiegirl" (Rocky Mountains) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I get so excited when my favorite authors break into hardcover. In fact, I'm pleased as punch to shell out the bigger bucks because it means that the awesome I've been basking in for awhile now has finally caught on and is being recognized on a wider scale. So it was, in a word, thrilling to open up the package from Penguin and see the words "#1 New York TimesBestselling Author" atop Patricia Briggs' shiny new hardcover BONE CROSSED.

Mercy Thompson starts her fourth adventure staring herself down in the mirror trying to decide where to go from here. The closing events of Iron Kissed left our favorite VW mechanic feeling, at best, very conflicted. She managed to make several key decisions, but can't quite seem to outrun her demons. Of course occupying the place of honor as lone walker, Alpha's declared mate, and vampire public enemy #1 doesn't help. She doesn't have long to fret, though, when an old acquaintance shows up on her doorstep convinced Mercy can banish a ghost for her. Meanwhile, a pair of crossed bones show up on the door of her shop branding her traitor, her place in the pack is still perilously unclear, and her mother drops in unannounced. On the positive side, Stefan plays a much larger role in this one. In fact, Stefan really stole the show for me and it was good to have him back after his rather conspicuous, though necessary, absence in Iron Kissed (Mercy Thompson, Book 3). His friendship with Mercy remains a highlight of the series for me.

If you haven't guessed by now, these books are hands down my favorite urban fantasy series out there. I am ridiculously fond of them. And a big reason why is the nimble way Ms. Briggs walks that infinitesimally fine line between keeping things interesting and staying true to her characters. Beset on all sides by the supernatural, the macabre, and the horrific, her characters continue to feel so real to me. Like I could step into their world and accept it lock, stock, and barrel because Mercy's there in her garage. And what could be more normal than that? BONE CROSSED had the same gritty feel that Moon Called (Mercy Thompson, Book 1) had, as well as the dry humor and breathtaking timing of Blood Bound (Mercy Thompson, Book 2). Being the fourth installment, these characters know each other pretty well by now and so the interpersonal issues swirl around the arc of the mystery, lending it a richness you'll want to sink your teeth into. This series has it all. Good guys worth fighting for. Bad guys worth having nightmares over. And a heroine who can handle them all. More. Please.