Karen Kay, The Spirit of the Wolf

The Spirit of the Wolf

Karen Kay

Berkley, Apr 2006, $7.99, 304 pp.

ISBN: 0425209202

In 1816, four preadolescents are chosen to try to lift the curse that haunts their respective tribal bands for killing four of Thunderer's children. Two days a year they will live on the mortal plane, while the rest of the year they will be in an ephemeral existence. The only hope to escape the curse resides in the Chosen One who must perform a heroic sacrificial deed by the time he is thirty.

In 1835, Grey Coyote knows he is running out of time to save his tribe, but feels he is close to solving the riddle of gaining ownership of something that belongs to his enemy. He assumes his enemy is Jacques LaCroix, for if he is not, the proud Indian knows he will have failed. In a game of Cos-Soo, he wins everything that Jacques owns, including Englishwoman Marietta Welsford, whose uncle exiled her to the "colonies" upon the deaths of her parents when she was a child. She has recently learned that if she claims their estate before her eighteenth birthday she will be wealthy; if she fails to do so, her uncle gains everything. She needs his help, but though he wants to assist the woman he loves, time is his enemy.

THE SPIRIT OF THE WOLF is a terrific Indian romantic fantasy that readers will enjoy from the moment Grey Coyote tastes failure as his clock is running out, yet also feels renewal with Marietta, though he will give up love to keep trying to solve the riddle. Though the emphasis is more on the romance, the fast paced storyline is driven by the desperation of Grey Coyote, who understands what is at stake. Similar in tone to its predecessor, THE ANGEL AND THE WARRIOR, fans will appreciate this fine tale.