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Stolen

by Kelley Armstrong

Once again we’re plunging into the spooky, moonlit forest – where both human and supernatural malfeasance dwells – with Kelley Armstrong’s sharp-fanged heroine Elena Michaels, whom fantasy enthusiasts will remember from Armstrong’s debut novel Bitten. Like Bitten, Stolen paints a perfectly convincing portrait of a woman who quite literally runs with the wolves.

Tall and striking, Toronto-bred Elena is a downtown babe like any other – except that she’s a werewolf. Years ago she was bitten by her lover/mentor Clay – himself a werewolf – and has since relocated to the States with him. Most of the time, Elena is a 32-year-old woman with a smart mouth and glamorous job as a journalist, but there are other, restless times where she is compelled to hide, and to change – into a full-fledged member of an ancient werewolf pack. Elena the werewolf has Supergirl strength and eternal youth, plus an appetite for the wild, wild thing, not to mention a steady diet of rabbits and deer. Life is good – until, inevitably, there is a disturbance.

Elena receives a long-distance entreaty from two very alarmed witches, who are convinced that members of all the supernatural communities are in danger. A summit of magic beings is convened, in which Eleana and the witches are joined by a vampire, a demon, and a shaman. Together they discover that an obsessed tycoon is amassing a private collection of supernaturals, whose powers he plans to harness for himself. When Elena herself is taken prisoner the fur flies in all directions.

Stolen works because Armstrong has created a persuasive, finely detailed otherwordly cosmology – featuring sorcery, astral projection, spells, telepathy and teleportation – that meshes perfectly with the more humdrum world of interstate highways and cable news bulletins. And except for a rather snarled portion in the middle, where the heroine is confined for too long in a confusingly laid out bunker, the plot moves along at a swift lope. More than just a thriller with extra teeth, Stolen is for anyone who has ever longed to leap over a SUV in a single bound, or to rip an evil security force to shreds, or even just to growl convincingly.

 

Reviewer: Adair Brouwer

Publisher: Random House Canada

DETAILS

Price: $24.95

Page Count: 400 pp

Format: Paper

ISBN: 0-679-31143-2

Issue Date: 2003-1

Categories: Fiction: Novels