| “ | Our Mercy, who never gets mad when she can get even. | ” |
–-Samuel in Cry Wolf | ||
Allison Stokke as Mercy
Allison Stokke as Mercy
The main protagonist of the Mercy Thompson series, Mercedes "Mercy" Athena Thompson Hauptman, is a coyote walker, the proprietor of Mercy's Garage, mate to Adam Hauptman, and adoptive daughter of the Marrock.
Appearance[]
Mercy is around 5′6″ and has long, straight, dark brunette hair that is mostly kept in braids. Her coloration is that of a Native American from her father, including permanently tanned skin, but her features are Anglo like her mother. She has a slender but muscular build from martial arts and running.
Identifying marks include a coyote pawprint tattoo beneath her navel, frequently mentioned, and also a couple on her arms (Moon Called), which Ms Briggs has confirmed are Celtic armbands. She has buckshot scars on her behind, and a white burn scar on her right cheek that looks like war paint (as of Night Broken). Her fingernails are kept short and she smells of burnt motor oil and the strong orange hand soap she uses.
In her other form, she looks like a normal coyote and weighs 32 pounds.
Personality[]
Mercy is described as being stubborn, headstrong, independent, hardworking, thoughtful, and caring. She doesn't like letting people she cares about be in danger alone but at the same time has trouble accepting help from anyone even when she needs it.
History[]
Childhood[]
The daughter of a Blackfeet Indian (Joe Old Coyote) and a white teenage mother (Margi), Mercedes lived with her mother until she found a coyote pup in Mercy's crib. At this development Margi sent Mercy to Aspen Creek to be raised by a friend of her grandfather's brother, Bran Cornick.
About age 16, Mercy fell in love with Samuel Cornick. While she loved him, he was more interested in the possibility of a coyote shapeshifter being able to bear children to a werewolf. Bran intervened by sending Mercy back to her mother in Eugene OR, where she lived for two years until she left for college where she obtained a BS in history, which she still dusts off and uses twice a year. She already had $10,000 in the bank due to Charles managing her high school minimum-wage earnings for her.
Young Adult[]
Mercy came to the Tri-Cities to interview as a history teacher, but when she realized they were more interested in her coaching abilities, she took a job as a mechanic instead. Looking for a fan belt for her VW Rabbit, she met nine-year-old Tad working at a run-down garage belonging to his father Zee, and he hired her. Zee subsequently fired her three times in the first month (Tad kept rehiring her), and eventually let her stay. When Zee was forced to come out publicly as fae, he sells the garage to Mercy.
Shortly after she purchases an old single-wide trailer and three acres to park it on, Adam Hauptman, Alpha of the Columbia Basin Pack, moves in behind her (much to her annoyance), with his then-wife Christy and their daughter Jesse.
Powers & Abilities[]
- She can change between human and coyote form instantaneously and without pain.
- As coyote, she is remarkably fast, faster even than most werewolves.
- As a human she has hearing, smell, and vision beyond normal humans. This is increased a little more in her coyote form, and as coyote she is also better able to organize what she smells.
- She has an inconsistent resistance to some magic, including most vampiric magic. She believes that the worse the magic is, the more likely it is she'll be affected.
- "Her magic, a gift of Coyote, was exactly like any gift a trickster god might bequeath – irrational, chaotic, and only sometime useful." -- Soul Taken
- She can see and talk with ghosts, and eventually learns she can command and control them.
- She practices Shi She Kai Kan, a form of karate, and progresses from a purple belt at the beginning of the series to a black belt by Soul Taken. She also spars daily with Adam to increase her strength, speed, agility, and technique.
- Mercy is a skilled marksman and has also trained with a variety of bladed weapons.
Known Pranks & Revenge[]
- Peanut butter on the seat of Bran's car after he made her foster mom cry for not forcing Mercy to wear a dress. She hid the smell by leaving a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on the dash with a note that said, "For the Marrock."
- Eggs
- She once stole one of each pair of Leah's shoes using a fishing pole to avoid leaving her scent, then hid them in the back of Charles' truck until she could throw them in a lake. A couple of years later, she fished one out of the lake and cleaned it until it looked like new, and left it on the top of the Christmas tree.
- Bran's Porsche
- Easter bunny made of chocolate laxatives
- Tag once thought to force a recalcitrant Mercy in coyote form to behave by using his shoelaces as a leash and collar. In return, she stole all of his shoelaces, then gave him shoelaces as Christmas gifts.
- Rabbit parts car
- Blue hair dye in Christy's shampoo that was left in Mercy's shower as deliberate encroachment of Mercy's territory.
Trivia[]
- She began working as an auto mechanic when she couldn't get a job as a geography teacher (because they really wanted a coach).
- Mercy was born when her mother was just seventeen.
- She is know worldwide among werewolves for challenging - and winning - against the Marrock.
- She is not immune to Adam's dominance (or Bran's), just very stubborn. (Frost Burned)
- Mercy drives a VW Rabbit, then a Jetta after the Rabbit is totaled. She also has a Vanagon but prefers to save it.
- She keeps a second Rabbit as a parts car, which she parks in her backyard to annoy her neighbor Adam Hauptman.
- In addition to fixing other people's cars, Mercy restores cars to sell and actually makes most of her income this way.
- She cannot wear rings as a mechanic unless she wants to be known as Nine-Finger Mercy, so she wears a gold chain with her wedding ring, Adam’s dogtag, and a silver lamb charm (instead of a cross).
- Mercy sees the pack bonds in pictures and symbols, while Adam smells things, and Bran and Samuel hear music. (Frost Burned)
Books[]
Moon Called[]
Mercy's life is not exactly normal. Her next-door neighbor is a werewolf, her former boss is a gremlin, and she's fixing a Volkswagen bus for a vampire. When a homeless teenage werewolf approaches Mercy asking for work, she knows it would be more prudent to refuse him, but he looks so desperate that she hires him anyway. Turns out that Mac has escaped from a laboratory where he was being experimented on. When bad guys show up looking for him and Mercy kills one of them, also a werewolf, she realizes it's time to call in Adam, the local Alpha werewolf.
Mercy Carries Adam when she arrives in Aspen Creek
Blood Bound[]
Mercy's vampire friend Stefan calls upon her to deliver a message to a visiting vampire who has failed to pay the proper respects to Stefan’s seethe. Of course, things go badly and soon Mercy is wrapped up in a hunt for a vampire who is also a demon rider and causing the Tri-Cities to experience a marked rise in violence. To complicate things, her feelings for Adam, the local Alpha, are scaring her, and her feelings for Samuel, an old flame, are unresolved.
Iron Kissed[]
Mercy is at a crossroads with the two men in her life, Samuel and Adam, two extremely dominant werewolves, so when her mechanic mentor, Zee, calls upon her to repay a favor, she is grateful for the distraction. Several unsolved murders on the fae reservation need solving, fast, and Mercy's nose may be their best bet. After she identifies him, Zee is charged with murdering the murderer, which complicates things considerably, but Mercy is undaunted in her determination to exonerate Zee.
Bone Crossed[]
Stefan pops into Mercy's house, flayed, starved, barely recognizable, and with a warning: Marsilia, the Mistress of his seethe, is aware of her involvement in the death of one of her get, Andre. A pair of crossed bones have been placed on the door of Mercy's Garage as a sign to other vampires and minions that she is a traitor. Mercy needs to get out of town, fast, so she goes with an old college friend Amber when Amber asks her to visit and validate her son's claim that there is a ghost in the house. Turns out it's not only a ghost, it's two of them, and it's not only ghosts, but vampire ghosts ... and a vampire who likes to feed on people with unusual powers ... like walkers.
Silver Borne[]
Mercy has a borrowed fae book that somehow puts her on a fae hit list, and they will stop at nothing to hunt her down. If that's not enough, Samuel is struggling with depression but his wolf isn't happy with suicide, and Mercy has to cover for him, lest Adam and Samuel's own father declare Samuel's life forfeit.
River Marked[]
An ancient evil is stirring in the depths of the Columbia River ... exactly where Mercy and Adam went for their honeymoon. While figuring out what they are dealing with, and how to deal with it, Mercy learns a little more about her heritage, maybe more than she ever wanted to know. Meeting other walkers and the primals from which they are all descended, they may be able to muster the strength they need to overcome the monster.
Frost Burned[]
When the government comes for Adam and his pack, they go quietly, but when they turn out to be rogue agents who want to force Adam to perform a public assassination, Mercy realizes she may be their only hope. As it turns out, vampire politics are behind the entire plot, and Mercy and Marsilia must team up before more people die.
Night Broken[]
Christy, Adam's ex-wife, has a dangerous stalker, and they have to bring her to stay in their home in order to protect her. They realize more may be going on when her stalker blows up her apartment (casually killing several people in the building). Worse is when he tracks down Mercy at her garage and turns out to be not human, and not even a werewolf, as Christy had assumed he was (without warning anyone). The pack joins forces to take down their biggest challenge yet.
Fire Touched[]
When a troll attacks the Cable Bridge the pack arrives to help the police. After killing it Mercy declares the Tri-Cities to be a safe haven under the pack's protection ... on camera, and with flaming sigils lighting up her walking staff. It turns out various factions of the fae are after several goals: one is setting loose monsters like the troll to strike fear into human hearts, and one is to get control of Aiden, a child who was locked up in Underhill for centuries until it recently reopened. But in addition to protecting their territory, Mercy and Adam take Aiden under their wing and offer him protection as well, which is a good thing as he turns out to be the key to consolidating their new territory and sealing a treaty with the fae.
Silence Fallen[]
Bonarata asks Wulfe to name the most powerful person in the Tri-Cities, so Wulfe exercises his sense of humor and names Mercy, who is then violently kidnapped and whisked off to Italy. Adam forms a coalition of vampires (Marsilia and Stefan), witches (Elizaveta), goblins (Larry the Goblin King and Austin the pilot), and werewolves (Adam and "Matt Smith" the other pilot) and heads to Milan.
Storm Cursed[]
Turns out all the excitement of the past few years may have had a single source: the Hardesty witches have been trying to undermine and infiltrate the supernatural coalition of the Tri-Cities - and they're ready to come out into the open to do it. With an army of zombies behind them, how could they lose?
Smoke Bitten[]
Underhill, or Tilly as she often prefers to be called, has decided a door in Mercy's back yard is just what she needs, and coincidentally a great spot to set loose one of the creatures who had lurked in her prisons for centuries. As the creature wreaks havoc on the population, Mercy figures out she may be doing just what Tilly wanted, as defeating the creature will result in his magic being returned to its source: Underhill.
Soul Taken[]
Turns out humiliating the Lord of Night (Silence Fallen) might not be such a great idea. Bonarata is back, and he's going big, loosing a cursed killing artifact on the population ... in the hands of Wulfe. Zee may be Mercy's only hope for eliminating the threat, but does Zee want it too much for himself?
Winter Lost[]
Gary's back and acting weird - and cursed - after a run-in with a frost giant. Mercy and Adam head up to Montana, where Gary was caretaker for a small ranch, to find out what they can do to lift the curse, and find the winter storm to end all winter storms, an interrupted wedding, and a missing artifact that may or may not bring about Ragnarok if they can't find where it's been hidden.
Short Stories & Graphic Novels[]
Mercy, Homecoming cover
Homecoming (graphic novel)[]
Ten years before Moon Called, Mercy Thompson first moved to the Tri-Cities for a geography teacher interview and ended up working in Zee's garage, not to mention meeting a vampire and getting involved in a gang war between two werewolf packs. Plus, she has to deal with her mother.
Redemption (short story)[]
Mercy and Adam support Ben as he deals with both his past and his horror at becoming a responsible adult. Set after Frost Burned.
Hopcross Jilly (graphic novel)[]
When the pack stumbles upon the buried bones of numerous dead children, it turns out that Jesse may be at risk. Set after Redemption.
Hollow (short story)[]
Mercy is asked to help with a haunting. She finds two ghosts and does a little matchmaking on the side. Set after Night Broken.