I am so sorry I didn't discover this series earlier, but I'm very glad I did! Carrie Vaughn's Kitty Norville, radio personality and lycanthrope (werewolf), is charming, courageous, and human—well, as human as a werewolf can be. She also isn't as knowledgeable about the paranormal as you might think, but she hosts a midnight radio talk show that deals with such topics and she's the resident skeptic, despite some of the weirder things she's experienced.

In Kitty Raises Hell, the sixth book in the series, readers find her in the aftermath of a run-in with the Band of Tiamat, a group of werecats in Las Vegas led by a vampire, who all were supposed to be worshiping an ancient Babylonian goddess. Thinking she is now safe, Kitty, back home in Denver, soon realizes that someone has sent something fiery and very nasty after her. She immediately seeks ways to protect her were-pack and serendipitously encounters the Paradox PI team, a group of paranormal investigators who do a TV show. Through the Paradox PI people and some other unexpected sources, Kitty tries to find out what was sent after her so she can figure out how to get rid of the thing before it starts killing people or setting Denver ablaze.

Carrie Vaughn's writing is witty, but realistic. Her characters, though straight from folklore and fantasy, are equally realistic and believable. But what I found most fascinating was Vaughn's ability to portray wolf qualities in her characterizations of Kitty and her were-family. Also, Vaughn paints a very different portrait of vampires, one that I think is most refreshing. All of that power over centuries has to come out in arrogance and ego, and Vaughn's vampires embody that, though Rick, the Master of Denver, does try to curb the egregiousness of those qualities.

The seventh Kitty Norville novel, Kitty's House of Horrors, will be released in January 2010. Until then, grab a copy of her previous adventures at your local bookstore or in the library. I know I will.