Audiobook: Etched in Bone by Anne Bishop

Etched in Bone
Author: Anne Bishop
Narrator: Alexandra Harris
Publication: Penguin Audio (March 7, 2017)
Length: 16 hours and 21 minutes

Description: New York Times best-selling author Anne Bishop returns to her world of the Others, as humans struggle to survive in the shadow of shape-shifters and vampires far more powerful than themselves….

After a human uprising was brutally put down by the Elders - a primitive and lethal form of the Others - the few cities left under human control are far-flung. And the people within them now know to fear the no man's land beyond their borders - and the darkness....

As some communities struggle to rebuild, Lakeside Courtyard has emerged relatively unscathed, though Simon Wolfgard, its wolf shifter leader, and blood prophet Meg Corbyn must work with the human pack to maintain the fragile peace. But all their efforts are threatened when Lieutenant Montgomery's shady brother arrives, looking for a free ride and easy pickings.

With the humans on guard against one of their own, tensions rise, drawing the attention of the Elders, who are curious about the effect such an insignificant predator can have on a pack. But Meg knows the dangers, for she has seen in the cards how it will all end: with her standing beside a grave.

My Thoughts: The Humans First and Last have been defeated leaving a new world for the humans and Others to learn to navigate. There are many abandoned towns. Communication doesn't easily pass from one region to another. The trains, boats, trucks and other vehicles are limited to daylight only transport. There are food shortages and floods of refugees who poured into Lakeside when their towns were destroyed.

Tolya Sanguinati is in charge of the town of Bennett which was emptied of human life when the Elders passed though. He has asked the Lakeside Courtyard to hold a job fair to help him find Intuits and Simple Life people who can run the businesses and farms that exist is the area. But the Elders may not have finished their purge of the pesky humans. They want to observe the humans in the Lakeside Courtyard to decided what sort of humans they are going to let repopulate those empty places.

Having Elders observe would be fine except that Lieutenant Montgomery's brother Jimmy has come to Lakeside with his wife and two children. He is not a good person. He is a thief and a schemer and never does anything for anyone unless he gets something from it. Since he has a hold on Monty's sister Sierra which causes her to do bad things for him, his presence upsets the working relationships in the Courtyard.

Simon and the rest of the Others in the Courtyard would have been more than willing to drive him out or kill and eat him but are forced to let him stay so that the Elders can observe his behavior. Simon does get the Elders to promise to help protect the human female pack though.

Jimmy's schemes run the gamut from pressuring Sierra for money and food to attempting to rent out empty apartments in the apartment building where he is staying to encouraging his children to shoplift in the Others' store to masterminding a theft of meat from the Others' butcher shop. All of these are thwarted and Jimmy thinks he has skated free to his next scheme because all is good if he doesn't face any consequences.

But Jimmy's latest scheme is kidnapping Meg so that he has a captive blood prophet of his very own. That scheme will be his last as humans, Others, and the Elders unite to find Meg and bring her back home to Simon.

This was another excellent episode in The Others series and brings the main plotlines to a very satisfying conclusion. I enjoyed listening to this audiobook version of a favorite series.

I bought this one. You can buy your copy here.