"Canyons," by P.D. Cacek (Tor, 302 pages, $23.95) is a different kind of news paper story set in the streets of Denver. Cat Moselle is a cub reporter for the Denver tabloid, Quest. Her first story is the shocker "I Was Bigfoot's Love Slave." She's admiring it on the bus ride home when a drug-crazed hijacker almost kills her. It's a mix of love at first sight and the story of a lifetime when she's saved by a werewolf who happens to be on the same bus.

Cat's editor doesn't believe her but thinks she a genius for turning a routine crime story into a Quest headline series. Cat wants to find her mysterious savior but doesn't realize that this will put her at the center of a turf battle between werewolves and their nasty cousins, weremen. Lucius is the werewolf. He's the heir apparent in his wealthy family, although he keeps a job tending bar in LoDo. He knows the woman on the bus will be trouble but he senses the mixed blood she isn't aware of. Cat is stuck between alpha males using her as their bone to fight over.

Cacek doesn't pull any punches. The funny parts are very funny and the violent parts are very violent. What starts as a light-hearted romance unfolds into a deeper and darker story.