STOLEN

Sequel to Bitten (2001), about a girl nipped by a nasty—well, psychopathic—but handsome werewolf, Clayton Danvers, whom she takes as her lover once she turns into the only living female werewolf.

In this second in the series, Elena Michaels discovers, as did Hamlet, that there are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, etc.—that, in fact, there are witches, half-demons, necromancers, sorcerers, shamans—and, gosh, vampires. Here, things begin with a new version of the oft-filmed The Most Dangerous Game, in which a millionaire traps humans to use them as quarry in a hunt, they being the most dangerous game. Only this time it’s Tyler Winsloe, billionaire and computer geek extraordinaire, who traps “otherworld” beings and keeps them in a very advanced glass prison deep in the Maine woods. At first he has only a shaman (who escapes but is ripped apart by rottweilers as he leaves his body), two witches, and a sorcerer who works for him and guides him to prey. Winsloe’s idea of great fun is to trap a werewolf, study it for a while, then free it to be hunted, although he is also privately amassing the world’s greatest collection of supernaturals. Is it foregone that he’ll trap, then hunt, Elena? Well, does a full moon cause Jack Nicholson to change? Elena finds herself trapped by two witches who warn her that Winsloe is onto all the otherworld races, not just werewolves; the witches then save her when Winsloe’s henchmen try a kidnap. Much Darwinian classification of the varied species precedes Elena’s capture and imprisonment, then all that follows.

Richly done.