Kitty Norville, werewolf and radio talk-show hostess, seems to be doing very well. Her new book Underneath the Skin is just about to be released, her radio show The Midnight Hour is still a big success, and she's now got her own boyfriend -- and built in pack -- in Ben.

Then she gets the call from her Dad. Her Mom's got breast cancer and is due for surgery. She and Ben drop everything and head to Denver.

The old saying "you can never go home" is literally true for Kitty. Her old werewolf pack, led by Carl and Meg, is in Denver. If she returns, Carl will consider it an invasion of his territory and act accordingly.

Add to that, Kitty's approached by her friend, Rick the Vampire. Rick's planning on taking over the city of Denver from the current Master Vampire, Arturo. Will she take sides with him in exchange for protection?

As usual, Carrie Vaughn has created a pageturner. Kitty & the Silver Bullet kept me up til 2 a.m. to finish.

Vaughn does some of the best world-building in urban fantasy today. She's taken very logical steps with cause and effect to generate some very plausible scenarios in how a post-paranormal world would develop. In Kitty & the Midnight Hour, Kitty's radio show introduced the world to paranormals. Following in logical order, Kitty Goes to Washington has Kitty lobbying Congress to get vampirism and lycanthropy acknowledged as diseases to obtain research funds and help for sufferers. In this book, she carries that to its next logical step. Denver is going to have a paranormal division in its police department and Detective Hardin is going to head it.

Her character development is also stellar. Kitty starts out as a beta wolf, abused by her pack leader, Carl. Now, she's a strong woman, capable of helping other victims and taking care of a pack of her own.

Plotting -- well, let's just say you need to have the time to finish the books when you sit down to read them because they're hard to put down. Vaughn puts very likable characters into some serious situations and makes you want to know what's going to happen to them.

Kitty & the Silver Bullet is the fourth in the series. What I particularly like is each novel is stand-alone in relation to a particular issue, but there are continuing life issues for Kitty and other characters. The series is well worth the read.