This book is a turning point in this series and is definitely not the place to start (to get the most out of this, you'd want to go to back to volume 1, Hounded -- it's a little awkward, as first novels are, but it contains a lot of necessary background information).
Over the first few books, we've developed relationships with several characters -- Atticus, the POV character (who does appear here, along with his dog Oberon), and his various friends and acquaintances (neighbors, attorneys, a coven of Polish witches, police officers, gods and goddesses, etc.). Although a few of those characters appear in this volume, many are only mentioned as passing references. (Atticus's apprentice Granuaile has a decent role in this one, though, if you liked her. She gets more of a personality as well, and we learn more about her motivation for starting Druid training.)
The mythology in this one is more Native American (Navajo, specifically) as opposed to Celtic. Atticus doesn't always have the strongest tools to deal with the various culture-specific enemies/monsters he comes across and he has to improvise and I like that. Coyote, who has appeared previously in the series, is back. He has made a request of Atticus and it *seems* like his motives here are honest and upstanding, but Atticus is never quite sure, knowing Coyote's trickster history.
In addition to helping Coyote, Atticus has to tie up all the loose ends of his old life and establish new identities for himself and Granuaile. So in the midst of his tasks with the Navajo, he is constantly having to leave to do other things. On one of these tasks, something happens (don't want to spoil it) and Oberon gets hurt. It is agony getting through the next chapter or two -- we want to know what happened to Oberon! Didn't know I could get attached to a dog character like that, whose sole purpose seems to be comic relief, but I did. It was a good place in the series to put a moment like that, too. Atticus's life is changing -- is this small part going to stay the same or is it going to change, too?
There's an interesting new element, and I can't say it surprises me. Atticus and Granuaile seem attracted to one another and Atticus is choosing to take the honorable path of not abusing his power as teacher and avoiding romantic involvement in his student's life (though we get the sense that, under other circumstances, he would like to). I will be interested to see where this goes. And the relationship would make more sense than some other couples I've seen thrown together in fantasy novels recently. But we will have to wait for a future volume for that. Another thing I like is that Atticus has doubts about past relationships (not just romantic ones) -- did people truly care for him as a friend/lover/etc., or did they only want to associate with him for selfish reasons? He maintains a generally positive attitude, but it's good to see those cracks in his shell. He's not as much of a male Mary Sue as he appeared to be in the first volume.
The writing style is similar to past volumes. There's a little infodumping on Navajo culture, but it's more cleverly-disguised than usual. Atticus serves as a proxy for the reader, since this is one culture he hasn't lived as a part of prior to this book. So he is learning and observing along with us. I much prefer this to long blocks of description or background information. The banter with Oberon is back, maybe not at its funniest ever, but still decent. Character development is a little better in this book than in the past ones -- there are more emotional moments and background details offered, even for non-Atticus characters. It's limited by the first-person POV, but it's there.
This book seems to have concluded one arc of the series, but I know there are more volumes left. And I am curious as to what will happen next. I can come up with one carryover from this book and the previous one that may continue on in future volumes, but this was most definitely a book of conclusions and endings, as well. (Kind of nice to have one of those in the middle of an ongoing series. A good change of pace, and there's plenty of room for new beginnings, too.)
I'm enjoying this series quite a bit and I'm planning to continue on to the next book pretty soon. I think Tricked is my favorite of the bunch (so far).
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