Wild Country, by Anne Bishop

This latest outing in the world of The Others focuses on the frontier town of Bennett, which was cleansed of its human population following the massacre of the local Wolfgard by the Humans First and Last movement. This is definitely not a stand-alone novel, as readers will need to comprehend that first sentence to get the most out of it. Wild Country both follows and runs alongside previous books in the series, introducing new characters such as the feisty police rookie Jana Paniccia to work with the known, such as town mayor and vampire Tolya Sanguinati. At one level the book is a fascinating examination of the delicate politics of human-Other relationships following the reclamation of Thaisia by its naturally dominant species. At another level it is a depiction of the plight of settlers in a Wild West frontier town. There is possibly a bit too much going on for there to be a truly satisfying story arc. Confusion about boundaries clouds Bishop’s usually razor sharp plot and narrative. It’s not the most engaging of The Others novels, which may signal the series has come to the end of its natural life.