Author's Comments

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When I received the invitation to do a private detective story for the George R. R. Martin/Gardner Dozois anthology Down These Strange Streets, Warren had just started to work for his boyfriend, Kyle, as a private detective. Of course, the story had to be Warren’s.

Because I write the Mercy books from Mercy’s point of view, her impressions of people are all that I can show. To Mercy, Warren seems to be the least intimidating of the werewolves. This is largely because they are friends but partially because she sees him as a kind, caring, and gentle man—which he is. But he is also a very dominant and gay werewolf who has survived more than a century when most gay werewolves do not (my werewolves are still, for the most part, caught in the mores of a hundred years ago). Warren is bone-deep tough and practical—and here, for the first time, he gets to tell the story.

The events of “In Red, with Pearls” happen between Silver Borne and River Marked.