Moon Called / Patricia Briggs

Moon Called by Patricia Briggs (a Mercy Thompson novel: 1). 288 p.

I decided to re-read the earlier parts of this series; it's been a while. This is an urban fantasy series where the main character is NOT the strongest, most powerful "whatever" around; Mercy is a shifter who takes coyote form so she's fast, but much less powerful than the werewolves, fae, and vampires that she is aware of around her. Another thing I like about this series: Mercy runs her own automotive garage, so if she decides to run around doing werewolf-related stuff, she has to get her mentor to open the garage for her, or put up a closed sign. That is, she has a *life* that she deals with in addition to whatever plot is happening. Here she's drawn into a werewolf plot because she tries to help out a down-on-his-luck teenager who asks her for work, and she stays involved because of loyalty to some friends who end up in trouble. I much prefer this to the Sookie Stackhouse book I just read.