Pure Blood
Caitlin Kittredge
St. Martin's, Sep 2008, $6.99
ISBN: 0312948301

Threes months on medical leave after killing the former DA Duncan on her last case (see 'Night Life'), Nocturne City homicide detective Luna Wilder is finally back on the job. Her fist case on her first day back involves what looks like a male blood witch addict overdosing; a simple street OD case until medical examiner Kronen notices an anomaly. The victim's eyes show pretichial hemorrhaging, a symptom associated with choking not heroin.

She is not welcomed back to the precinct as a hero. Instead the rookies gawk, the veterans look concerned probably because of the tabloid publicity of an out of control werewolf cop, and her new hostile Captain Morgan informs her she is less than rubbish. When more witches die, Luna realizes she is investigating a witch gang war. She could use the help of her former lover Dimitri Sandovsky, but his pack forbids him seeing her as they blame Luna for his illness caused by a demon bite.

Luna is the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly rolled into one livid lone lobo werewolf as she follows the clues angering everyone who she meets. The case is fun to follow, but it is gritty Nocturne City that magically owns this dark police procedural urban fantasy. Fans will enjoy walking the mean streets with Luna half logical and half lunatic as she brings to life the gloomy exhilarating world of Caitlin Kittredge.

Harriet Klausner