Etched in Bone

Etched in Bone is a novel by the American writer Anne Bishop, published in 2017. It is the fifth book of the Others series and it follows the events of Marked in Flesh. It is the fifth of the series about the Others, in which the shapeshifters and vampires of the world hold the power that humans used to have.

The Elders, a primitive and lethal form of the Others, have crushed the human uprising, and the communities that are left know better than to go beyond their own borders. Lakeside Courtyard has survived comparatively well, and Simon Wolfgard, the wolf shifter who leads it, and Meg Corbyn, the blood prophet, are trying to keep the peace with the human pack.

The difficulty is that the human population is now gathered in few enough places that the behaviour of one person can unsettle the whole arrangement. The book follows the Courtyard as the people in it try to hold things together, and as the humans and the Others find out how much they can trust one another. Lakeside is a courtyard, one of the places where humans and Others have been able to live side by side, and the peace there is worth keeping.