Short Story Saturday: In Red, With Pearls

Title: In Red, With Pearls (from the anthology Shifting Shadows: Stories from the World of Mercy Thompson)

Author: Patricia Briggs

Date of Publication: September 2, 2014

Formats Available: Hardcover, Paperback, E-book

Buy This Book: Amazon

Number of Pages: 44

Synopsis: "Because I write the Mercy books from Mercy's point of view, her impressions of people are all I can show. To Mercy, Warren seems to be the least intimidating of the werewolves. This is largely because they are friends but partially because she sees him as a kind, caring, and gentle man- which he is. But he is also a very dominant and gay werewolf who has survived more than a century when most gay werewolves do not (my werewolves are still, for the most part, caught in the mores of a hundred years ago). Warren is bone-deep tough and practical- and here, for the first time, he gets to tell the story"- Patricia Briggs, Shifting Shadows: Stories from the World of Mercy Thompson

My Review:

 I was super excited for this story, I've always loved Warren and Kyle and I couldn't wait to read about the two of them from a different point of view. I've always loved Warren and Kyle and I couldn't wait to see them interact with each other from a different point of view, however this story wasn't quite what I thought it would be. The little mystery and the plot were enjoyable, but I didn't end up liking this one as much as I thought I would.

Maybe I was expecting more interaction between Kyle and Warren but I was sad to see Kyle barely playing a part in this short story. One of the reasons I've always loved Warren is the fact that he's gay and I was seriously hoping for more romance between him and Kyle. In the books we often see little snippets of affection between them and this time around I was hoping to see something a little more personal. I did enjoy getting a look into Warren's mind though,

I did like seeing Warren from a different perspective, as Briggs said Mercy sees Warren as a not very intimidating wolf and in this story we get to see another side of him. Warren wasn't afraid to do what he needed to in order to protect Kyle, even if it wasn't the nicest course of action. I was also super interested in the new creature introduced into the Mercy world, zombies. It wasn't quite a direction I could see Briggs going but overall the whole zombie aspect worked really well for the story and who knows, maybe we're destined to see a few more in the future!

In the end this was a very enjoyable story, and I really enjoyed the mystery aspect of it, but it fell just a little bit flat. I think I was just expecting a little bit more of the character interaction I love from Briggs but got more of a plot based story instead. Still a good read and a great addition to the anthology!

4/5