Preternatura Book Club: MOON CALLED by Patricia Briggs, Chapters 13-14

Welcome to this week’s “meeting” of the Preternatura Book Club! Today, we’re looking at Chapter 13 and 14 of the first book in Patricia Briggs’ Mercy Thompson series, Moon Called.

When we last left Mercy, she had just shared with the Marrok, Bran, her suspicions about who was behind the attack on Adam and the kidnapping of his daughter Jesse. The wolves had gone to a house where they thought the kidnappers might be, and Mercy is getting worried.

MOON CALLED, Chapter 13-14

Mercy’s worried about not hearing from Adam or Warren, so she isn’t paying attention as she comes into her house; otherwise, she might have sensed the three men lying in wait. She breaks one’s nose even as she realizes they’re trying not to hurt her. Finally, she pulls Zee’s knife on them, and they begin to talk.

Mercy’s guess that Doc Wallace was involved was sort of right—it’s his son Gerry who’s behind it all. He wants to replace Bran with Adam as Marrok to thwart Bran’s plan to make the wolves public. The men in Mercy’s trailer are Adam’s old Army buddy David Christiansen and his two grandsons. Gerry Wallace hired them as mercenaries, but then they realized he was nuts. Now, they want to help get Adam and Jesse away from him and his men.

This is the first time Mercy has realized Adam was taken, and just after she gets the news Samuel conveniently shows up. They all talk, and agree that Mercy has to be in on the rescue because both Adam and Jesse trust her—and there’s a picture of her in Adam’s bedroom. Hmmm, interesting, Mercy thinks. That’s news to her.

Kind of odd that Mercy’s mom calls in the middle of all this, to remind us it’s Thanksgiving.

Christiansen and his grandsons take Mercy in wolf form to the tree farm warehouse where Adam and Jesse are being held. Mercy recognizes the name on a realtor’s For Sale sign as being a pack member, so they know he’s their traitor. She calls Adam’s second, Darryl, and lets him know.

Shifting to her coyote form, Mercy maneuvers into the building. They have an elaborate plot for the escape, so she has to wait a while before going upstairs where the hostages are. We learn that Adam is being drugged within an inch of his life—and is still giving them fits.  Finally, David’s grandson John-Julian comes with Mercy’s backpack and leads her to the room. Jesse is tied to a bed, while Adam is tied to a chair and wrapped heavily in silver.

Mercy shifts back, gets dressed, and hides in the closet when one of the rogues comes to take Jesse to the bathroom. There’s an odd scene where another bad guy comes and runs the first one off, then he takes Jesse to the bathroom and watches her. I guess the whole point of the scene was to tell us these are Bad Dudes. They also shoot Adam with another tranquilizer dart.

When the guy brings Jesse back—with a fresh bruise—Mercy uses Zee’s knife to cut through not only Jesse’s ropes but Adam’s silver chains. Apparently, a fae knife is a handy thing to have.

After a close call with another guard, Adam starts coming round. Mercy manages to get some coffee in him. But then he starts having seizures. The Christiansen ally who’s supposed to help them out finally arrives, but Adam’s still in bad shape.

So, that’s it for this week. I wondered as I was ready how differently this might have read if the “mystery” wasn’t solved for us before Mercy went in. If they’d found Adam by other means or at least didn’t have guys on the inside to help. It would really have ratcheted the tension up, I think.

Next week, we’ll finish up Moon Called, and I will start devoting Wednesdays to providing special content and giveaways around Royal Street until after the launch and the upcoming book tour. Throughout most of April and early May, I’ll be blogging from the road!

Drop back in tomorrow and say hello to debut author E.C. Myer and hear about (and win) his new book, Fair Coin.