| Draw One in the Dark | 
 enlarge | Author: Sarah A Hoyt
Publisher: Baen
Category: Book
List Price: $7.99
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Avg. Customer Rating:  8 reviews
Sales Rank: 294334
Media: Mass Market Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 448
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 6.7 x 4.1 x 1.3
ISBN: 1416555420
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9781416555421
ASIN: 1416555420
Publication Date: April 29, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Every one of us has the beast inside. But for Kyrie Smith, the beast is no metaphor. Since she was 15, when she first shape-shifted into a savage, black panther, Kyrie has questioned her humanity. Although she's managed to keep her inner beast secret most of the time, the panther occasionally emerges to strike unbidden. Terrified she'll hurt someone while in panther form, Kyrie moves from town to town, searching for a way to feel human again. Kyrie's lonely life changes forever while waitressing at a cheap diner in Goldport, Colorado. Investigating frantic screams from the parking lot, Kyrie stumbles upon a blood-spattered dragon crouching over a mangled human corpse. The dragon shape-shifts back into her co-worker, Tom, naked, dazed and unable to remember how he got there. Thrust into an ever-changing world of shifters, where shape-shifting dragons, giant cats and other beasts wage a secret war behind humanity's back, Kyrie may find the answers she seeks -- with help from Tom, a mythical object called the Pearl of Heaven, and her own inner beast.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 3 more reviews...
Murder Most Mysterious September 11, 2008
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
Draw One in the Dark (2006) is the first fantasy novel in the Shifters series. It is set in Goldport, Colorado, a small mining town that has become the home of a major university.
In this novel, she calls herself Kyrie Grace Smith. As a newborn dropped off at the entrance of a church in Charlotte, North Carolina, she doesn't know her real name. She was placed in a foster home as a foundling and lived in many other foster homes until she became an adult.
But then she passed through Goldport and felt so comfortable and at ease that she stayed. She got a job waiting tables at the Athens -- a local greasy spoon -- on her first day in town and still works there. Now she lives in a tiny house that is her own personal home (as long as she pays the rent).
Tom Ormson also works as a waiter at the Athens. He has been on the road since being thrown out of his house at the age of sixteen. He had been a holy terror as a toddler and a delinquent as a teenager. Since leaving home, he has also been an addict -- heroin and many other drugs -- but quits after getting a job at the Athens.
Rafiel Trall is a Goldport cop. His father and grandfather were Goldport cops. He was named for a character in two Agatha Christie mystery novels. Rafiel has had little choice in his career path.
Keith Vorpal lives in the same apartment building as Tom. Since they both lose their keys a lot, they have an arrangement that each holds spare keys for the other. Keith figures that Tom is also a womanizer like himself.
Frank Skathari is the cook and owner of the Athens. He serves standard fare, but also a little souvlaki and other Greek cuisine. A gruff character with Neanderthal eyebrows, he has little trouble with the customers in this rundown section of town.
Edward Ormson is Tom's father. He has been divorced from Tom's mother for ten years. One day, Edward had threatened Tom with a pistol and forced him out of the home.
In this story, Kyrie hears a scream from the back parking lot and goes out to investigate. Stepping outside, she smells the scent of blood. Shifting into a black panther, she follows the smell.
She reaches a pool of blood and a body. Abruptly, she notices a shadow on the other side. It is a Nordic dragon with blood on its muzzle. Then it shifts back to its human form and becomes Tom. As Kyrie is taking the naked Tom to her car, a lion appears and follows them.
Kyrie and Tom find his apartment destroyed. A trio of Asian thugs threaten them and then turn to Oriental dragons. Kyrie shifts and starts to slash at them. Tom turns and carries the enraged panther out the broken window.
Fleeing the dragons, they reshift and drive away in the car. Reaching Kyrie's house, they treat each other's wounds. Then Rafiel shows up at her front door and asks to speak to her. He has eyes like the lion in the back parking lot.
Eventually, Rafiel tells Kyrie that shifters have been disappearing around Goldport. None on the force except himself are shifters, so they are not aware of the situation. Bodies have been recovered that were severed in two, so the police are looking for an oversize Komodo dragon. But the body in the parking lot does not match the others except that it too is a shifter.
The Great Sky Dragon -- a golden Oriental reptile with wings -- is responsible for the bodies bitten in half. He has punished a few members of the Triad of the Dragon for not finding the Pearl of Heaven that Tom has supposedly hidden. Naturally, the Great Sky Dragon is an ancient shifter.
The Great Sky Dragon also takes Edward to Goldport to recover the pearl. Edward meets Kyrie and tries to talk her into helping him, but Kyrie concludes that he is working for the Triad and runs away from him. Their discussion causes him to rethink his role in Tom's life.
Then Kyrie discovers the killers of the body in the parking lot. She tries to tell Rafiel and Tom, but they do not take any action. So she checks out the suspects herself and finds her life in danger. Enjoy!
This tale depicts the shifters as having very uncertain lives. They are subject to sudden shifts, ruining their clothing and losing their keys. They get in the habit of stashing spares in autos and elsewhere.
Note: the title of this work comes from diner slang. It means a cup of black coffee. The title of the next volume in the series -- Gentleman Takes a Chance -- is also diner slang meaning hash.
Highly recommended for Hoyt fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of preternatural creatures, murder mysteries, and a touch of romance.
-Arthur W. Jordin
Great Fantasy October 21, 2007
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
One of the best shapeshifter novels I have ever read. And I read a lot. I reccomend this to any Fantasy reader. Kyrie is a great heroine and the story is very real to life. You will believe in dragons (and large cats) after you read the book.
 Families, friends, love, loyalty, and trust... June 8, 2007
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
Kyrie Smith had been looking for a place to belong. She thought she'd found it in Goldport, Colorado. She had a job as a waitress in the Athens, a Greek diner. She'd even managed to rent a small house with a patch of yard for a garden. It may not seem like much to others but it meant stability and normalcy for Kyrie -- who occasionally turned into a panther. Life was pretty good for a change, that is until Tom Ormson missed his shift at the diner and Kyrie found him naked and covered with blood next to a body in the parking lot.
But that's not all, she'd seen Tom as he'd changed from Nordic dragon to man. And then there was the lion that also seemed to be strangely compelling and not what he seemed in the diner's parking lot. Kyrie went from believing herself the only shapeshifter in the world to meeting two. One accepted and loved by his parents and one who'd been tossed out onto the streets when he first changed forms. For Kyrie, who'd never known family she found that maybe she could at least have friends.
There are at least four plot threads that intersect in Draw One in the Dark. They are all deftly woven together with changing points of view. It's also not a straight narrative but the flashbacks and changing point of view are not confusing and seem to fill in information at just the right time. The characters are slowly revealed to be more than what they seemed at first. While shapeshifting is not a new trope, it is handled in a different manner showing the reader the drawbacks to shapeshipfting. It's impact on relationships, family bonds, livelihood, and love.
A new take on shape-shifters December 10, 2006
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
I enjoyed this book because it's a new look at an old trick. The perspective of the shifted person is nicely modified; the shifting is more laborious and even painful. Life is gritty, the dialogue is realistic, and the people are solid characters. I could see the events unfolding almost as if it had been an X-Files episode (in the good years).
I'm looking forward to more of this author, and more of these characters. I plan to get a good seat in one of those booths by the window, along with a piece of pie and coffee, and just watch the story unfolding before my eyes.
New twist on old tale December 9, 2006
8 out of 9 found this review helpful
Over the many years I've been reading science fiction and fantasy, I've seen many attempts to integrate `shifters' (people who can change into another physical form) into a plausible part of the modern world. This is the first work that succeeds, and on many levels. It is a good mystery, with enough clues to keep you guessing. The explanation of `shifters', and `shifting' in general, is seamlessly integrated in the story, without distracting from the action. It is also a coming of age tale.
First-rate storytelling, characters you can see (and smell) and care about, a tale that starts off quickly and never slows down. So come into the diner, hang up your stuff, sit down and enjoy the ride.
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