Review: Dead Heat

Author:Patricia Briggs
Series: Alpha & Omega, #4
Released: March 3rd 2015
Publisher: Ace
Length: 336 pages
Source: Publisher for review
Buy: Amazon

For once, mated werewolves Charles and Anna are not traveling because of Charles’s role as his father’s enforcer. This time, their trip to Arizona is purely personal, as Charles plans to buy Anna a horse for her birthday. Or at least it starts out that way...

Charles and Anna soon discover that a dangerous Fae being is on the loose, replacing human children with simulacrums. The Fae’s cold war with humanity is about to heat up—and Charles and Anna are in the cross fire. 

A whole lot of time has passed between books three and four in Briggs’ Alpha & Omega series, and yet most of us haven’t forgotten a single thing about Fair Game or any of the previous books. The explanation is rather simple: it’s all due to the quality of Briggs’ writing. She is, and always was, incredible. I dare say she’s the reigning queen of urban fantasy.


Dead Heat is not her best book to date, though, not even close, but Briggs at her weakest is still better than 90% other authors. It read at times like a filler book, and it was, on occasion, more an ode to horses than anything else. Patty loves her horses and she knows them well – understanding their behavior has influenced her writing greatly, and in fact, the way she writes her werewolves is heavily influenced by her knowledge of animal psychology. She raises horses and spends every day around them, which makes her books truly special. In this installment, however, she took things just a tiny bit too far, offering a lot more information on breeding and raising horses than her story actually needed.

That aside, it’s always a pleasure to see how her characters develop and behave. Charles and Anna have progressed so much, and while it’s more obvious on her, his changes seem a lot more significant. I didn’t understand the need to bring in another woman as Charles’ former love interest, but while it bothered me as these things usually do, it also showed how much more confident Anna has become and how firmly she believes in her marriage.

The mystery elements were very nicely done and that part of the story progressed at an excellent pace. This is where Patty’s experience really comes to light – she weaves her stories expertly and smoothly, balancing romance, creepy moments, dreadful monsters and character development with seeming ease. She is the absolute best at what she does and I hope she’ll keep writing stories in this universe for many more years to come.

Her next book will be in the Mercy Thompson series and as far as I know, the next Alpha & Omega book has yet to be announced, but things happen on a firm timeline and, with each new installment, the two series are brought closer and closer together. I feel that they’ll collide at some point, especially now that war with the fae seems more or less inevitable.

A copy of this book was kindly provided by the publisher for review purposes. No considerations, monetary or otherwise, have influenced the opinions expressed in this review.