Anna used to be a college student, but after three years at the bottom of a Chicagoan werewolf pack that life seems very far away. The alpha, Leo, subjugated her, forced male pack members to rape her, and forbade any contact with her family. The arrival of Charles Cornick, leader of the North American werewolves, has pushed Anna further off balance – after killing Leo, Charles claimed Anna as his mate and insisted she was a rare and valuable kind of werewolf, an Omega. Though attracted to Charles Anna is fearful and mistrusts her own instincts. With no experience of pack life except as the bottom of a dysfunctional fringe pack she feels lost enough. When a shadow from a pack members’ past threatens the whole pack, though, Anna discovers her value, and reclaims her life.
Cry Wolf opens with Anna travelling toward Montana with Charles and his father, Bram. Set in the same universe as Briggs’s Mercy Thompson series, Cry Wolf both answers a dangling question from the first Mercy book and is also apparently the sequel to a short story, which I haven't read. I imagine the events which lead up to Cry Wolf (Anna's turning from human to were etc) are detailed there, but there's enough suggestion, reference and detail for readers unfamiliar with the novella or new to Brigg’s world. Though self-contained, I suspect the experience as a whole would be more rewarding and make more sense if read in conjunction with the short story and the other series.
The characters are well crafted, and Briggs does a great job of conveying the relative age of some of the senior pack members and the underlying politics with subtlety. The chief plot, of the threat, only crops up late in the book but is convincing and dark, while the whole text is underpinned by Anna’s journey, which is portrayed convincingly and is well integrated with the other plots. These include a strong romance, as Anna’s human side learns to trust and bond with Charles – his wolf chose her, but that doesn’t mean the human aspects are compatible, and we see another relationship within the pack where this is the case.
It’s elements like that which put Briggs above many other writers in the genre – she does a masterful job of showing aspects of the universe she’s created without telling or spotlighting them with a neon arrow. I also liked Anna’s intermittent use of Latin phrases, a habit from her pre-transformation life. Had I thought to look I’m sure I would have been able to find Me transmitte sursum, Caledoni* online but coming across it in passing was infinitely more rewarding. I look forward to the next in what I imagine (based on the subtitle An Alpha and Omega novel) is a series. – Alex
*Beam me up, Scotty
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