40) Coyote Dreams, by C.E. Murphy

The close of the first three Joanne Walker novels by , featuring a Seattle policewoman who is also a somewhat unwilling shaman. I think that if you like Buffy, you will like these books; there are obvious parallels in the heroine’s resentment of the way her mystical powers have turned her life upside down, and there is a common thread of wit and not taking the supernatural too earnestly while at the same time doing it seriously enough that we believe the situation. I read the first three stories in the series (Urban Shaman, Thunderbird Falls and a separately published novella) in the wrong order, but still enjoyed them; I wouldn’t recommend starting with Coyote Dreams, though, as it is heavily dependent on what has gone before. But it was the only one I could find in Forbidden Planet in London last week; ‘s books seem about as rare as hen’s teeth on this side of the Atlantic.