“Skinwalker” by Faith Hunter, published by Roc (Penguin) in July 2009, ISBN 9780451462800.

Jane Yellowrock is the last of her kind-a skinwalker of Cherokee descent who can turn into any creature she desires and hunts vampires for a living. But now she’s been hired by Katherine Fontaneau, one of the oldest vampires in New Orleans and the madam of Katie’s Ladies, to hunt a powerful rogue vampire who’s killing other vamps…

Vampires and New Orleans–what combination could be better?

The first in a new series from fantasy novelist Faith Hunter, “Skinwalker” tells the story of Jane Yellowrock, a Cherokee skinwalker (think shapeshifter, but more beastly, and with a wolf-like element) who is the last of her kind. She also happens to hunt vampires. And after narrowly escaping with her life after tangling with a vicious vamp family, Jane is ready for her newest gig. Only trouble is the person who hired her is a vampire, too.

I enjoyed the initial setup in which the “bad guy” and main character have to form a truce to take down an even worse bad guy, and Faith Hunter does a great job of making the scenario work, particularly when Jane and the vampire, Katie, have their first encounter.

The best thing about Jane is that she comes off as likeable. She’s tough and in your face, but she has a soft spot for her witch friend Molly’s daughter (a witch with huge destructive potential although she’s still young), which is endearing. Jane is as tough as she needs to be, isn’t hyper-masculinized, and doesn’t try too hard. She just is who she is. Love her or leave her. Another of her good traits: she doesn’t whine or mope. If you’re sick of angst, you won’t find much of it in this novel.

Although Hunter uses paragraphs of exposition to explain to the reader her complex system of how genetics works in a skinwalker like her, and in witches and sorcerers like her friends Molly and Evan, because the novel is written in the first person, it didn’t come off in an infodumpy way–always a risk with too much exposition.

One of the more refreshing elements was that in Hunter’s universe, skinwalkers can’t just shape-shift into anything they want. Jane is restricted to shape-shifting into animals (she can’t take on the form of humans), and she herself has varying degrees of bestiality, most often represented in the form of her hunger for flesh (to be expected, given the circumstances). I found it more interesting to have a skinwalker who can’t just shift into any animal, big or small, no questions asked. Otherwise, it becomes a case of “Miss Invincible who can do anything,” which gets boring very quickly.

Hunter’s descriptions of when Jane shifts to other animals, including a snake, are vivid and sensory–as they should be. And she shows us what’s going through her mind when she’s in an animal state and not in her human one, which is admittedly a challenging thing to write without coming off as humorous, but Hunter pulls it off. More importantly, it wouldn’t be realistic if Jane just shifted to her human form and felt no different. Bonus points go to Hunter for describing the pain that Jane goes through when she shifts back and forth.

The New Orleans setting comes alive especially when Jane goes to a bar with the Joe–or Rick Lafleur, a Cajun biker who stirs up something deep within Jane, but he quickly reveals himself to be dangerous because of all the things he knows about her, Molly, and the fight they both had with the family of vampires prior to the novel’s beginning. Still, Jane’s Beast is attracted to something inside of Rick, and I liked the exchanges between these two.

One of the novel’s most interesting elements is figuring out what the “rogue vampire,” who is the main villain, really is. If he’s a vampire who is forced to feed on human skins and take their shape because it can no longer sustain its own, why it rots, if it’s a liver-eater or a just an evil skinwalker, and if it’s a vampire at all. Because we learn the truth with Jane, it ratcheted the tension for me.

Overall, if you’re looking for an action-packed fun read with a sassy main character who you’ll really get on board with, pick up “Skinwalker” and find out what Jane Yellowrock can really do.