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Skinners #3
Teeth of Beasts
“ Twilight fans hungering for more vampire/werewolf drama can look forward to Skinners .”
— USA Today There are werewolves in the subways! Teeth of Beasts, Marcus Pelegrimas’s third dark, violent, action-packed Skinners paranormal adventure, is a must for Jim Butcher and Laurell K. Hamilton fans, for Halo aficionados, and for anyone who loves a good, gory, supernatural story that creeps under the skin. Bram Stoker Award-winner Jonathan Maberry calls Pelegrimas’s series “A hell of a lot of fun,” and the latest chapter goes to glorious new extremes, with vampires, shapeshifters, savage inhuman beasts, and all manner of terrifying things that go bump in the night.
— USA Today There are werewolves in the subways! Teeth of Beasts, Marcus Pelegrimas’s third dark, violent, action-packed Skinners paranormal adventure, is a must for Jim Butcher and Laurell K. Hamilton fans, for Halo aficionados, and for anyone who loves a good, gory, supernatural story that creeps under the skin. Bram Stoker Award-winner Jonathan Maberry calls Pelegrimas’s series “A hell of a lot of fun,” and the latest chapter goes to glorious new extremes, with vampires, shapeshifters, savage inhuman beasts, and all manner of terrifying things that go bump in the night.
400 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 2010
10 people are currently reading
214 people want to read
About the author
Marcus Pelegrimas
18 books65 followersMarcus Pelegrimas is the son of Sicilian immigrants who rose to power in the criminal underworld of the 1950’s. No wait…that was Michael Corleone.
Marcus Pelegrimas lives and works in Nebraska . Yes, he eats corn. No, he doesn’t live on a farm.
He graduated with a degree in Criminal Justice and currently lives in Omaha , Nebraska where he has worked in several different genres of fiction including western, mystery, horror and fantasy. Nowadays, he plays too many video games and spends too much time watching crappy movies when he should be hard at work on his next novel. Good thing his beautiful and very patient wife Megan is there to knock him off the couch when the deadlines creep in.
Marcus Pelegrimas lives and works in Nebraska . Yes, he eats corn. No, he doesn’t live on a farm.
He graduated with a degree in Criminal Justice and currently lives in Omaha , Nebraska where he has worked in several different genres of fiction including western, mystery, horror and fantasy. Nowadays, he plays too many video games and spends too much time watching crappy movies when he should be hard at work on his next novel. Good thing his beautiful and very patient wife Megan is there to knock him off the couch when the deadlines creep in.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
June 25, 2011
Three and a half stars.
Teeth of beasts is the third in a series, and while it's not necessary to have read the prior books to understand the plot, it undoubtedly helps with some of the intricacies of the antagonist and magical mechanics. Overall, typical of Pelegrimas' work to date, with some improvements in plotting and character relationships. I found it more enjoyable than previous books, with perhaps less emphasis on gritty minor skirmishes and a greater focus on the final face-off. Definitely a fast read.
I've always felt his main character, Cole, is believable, just not particularly sympathetic. The story begins with him driving to Seattle, meeting with his old boss, a conversation the obliquely helps people new to the series establish setting and prior events. It really comes as a surprise to no one but Cole when he is fired. He then drives to Minnesota to meet Abby, a close contact from MEG and a potential love interest who talks him into joining her on a Chupacabra hunt. Talking with her gives the reader even more background and opens up one of the most potentially interesting aspects of the series, the morality of the Skinners' work.
Cole returns to Chicago, meets up with Paige at their squat. They are soon surprised by a Nymar at their door, and end up shooting him when he won't comply with their directions to stand still. They realize he's diseased, call Q Daniels, their Nymar chemist-of-all-types, and decide to head to St. Louis to investigate. Within a day of arrival, they find themselves fighting the local Mongrels, who let important information about Kansas City drop. From there, they team with two other Skinners Paige familiar with Paige, and try to work out the details of the contagion. I'll save the rest to avoid spoilers, but we know from the prologue that Henry will play a role in the confrontation.
I've never felt a great deal of attraction or sympathy for Peter, and its hard to identify why. He originally starts out such a normally, geeky guy who loves his games, it should be someone I could identify with. He rises to the challenge of taking a role in fighting against the monsters, but maybe because he is slow at questioning the moral compass of the role, and allows Paige to dictate terms and actions, I find him less appealing.
The setting is modern Chicago and St. Louis, without too many details that would date it. For the most part, action is in more seedy nondescript locations. I found the "purple temple" device odd; most strip clubs in midwestern cities seem to go for a low profile, or are far outside the city. It would seem to draw undue attention, but what do I know about strip clubs? More importantly, the disease mechanism seemed excessively clunky and a struggle to understand biologically. There are more hints at the moral struggle and compromise of the Skinners; do they engage in all-out war with all altered beings, or do they make compromises? Given that Pelegrimas shows us Henry's thoughts in the prologue, Mongrels as thinking beings, as well as snippets of Full Blood interactions in other books, it seems he might be ambivalent about the ethics of Mongrel/Nymar/Full Blood genocide as well.
Overall, a good, action oriented read that lacks sophistication in character or wording that would push it into greatness. There is one sex scene, which came as a surprise; I'm not sure who the intended audience was. It seemed incongruent with the rest of the book. Worthy of reading, but I won't be adding to my personal library.
Teeth of beasts is the third in a series, and while it's not necessary to have read the prior books to understand the plot, it undoubtedly helps with some of the intricacies of the antagonist and magical mechanics. Overall, typical of Pelegrimas' work to date, with some improvements in plotting and character relationships. I found it more enjoyable than previous books, with perhaps less emphasis on gritty minor skirmishes and a greater focus on the final face-off. Definitely a fast read.
I've always felt his main character, Cole, is believable, just not particularly sympathetic. The story begins with him driving to Seattle, meeting with his old boss, a conversation the obliquely helps people new to the series establish setting and prior events. It really comes as a surprise to no one but Cole when he is fired. He then drives to Minnesota to meet Abby, a close contact from MEG and a potential love interest who talks him into joining her on a Chupacabra hunt. Talking with her gives the reader even more background and opens up one of the most potentially interesting aspects of the series, the morality of the Skinners' work.
Cole returns to Chicago, meets up with Paige at their squat. They are soon surprised by a Nymar at their door, and end up shooting him when he won't comply with their directions to stand still. They realize he's diseased, call
I've never felt a great deal of attraction or sympathy for Peter, and its hard to identify why. He originally starts out such a normally, geeky guy who loves his games, it should be someone I could identify with. He rises to the challenge of taking a role in fighting against the monsters, but maybe because he is slow at questioning the moral compass of the role, and allows Paige to dictate terms and actions, I find him less appealing.
The setting is modern Chicago and St. Louis, without too many details that would date it. For the most part, action is in more seedy nondescript locations. I found the "purple temple" device odd; most strip clubs in midwestern cities seem to go for a low profile, or are far outside the city. It would seem to draw undue attention, but what do I know about strip clubs? More importantly, the disease mechanism seemed excessively clunky and a struggle to understand biologically. There are more hints at the moral struggle and compromise of the Skinners; do they engage in all-out war with all altered beings, or do they make compromises? Given that Pelegrimas shows us Henry's thoughts in the prologue, Mongrels as thinking beings, as well as snippets of Full Blood interactions in other books, it seems he might be ambivalent about the ethics of Mongrel/Nymar/Full Blood genocide as well.
Overall, a good, action oriented read that lacks sophistication in character or wording that would push it into greatness. There is one sex scene, which came as a surprise; I'm not sure who the intended audience was. It seemed incongruent with the rest of the book. Worthy of reading, but I won't be adding to my personal library.
May 22, 2013
4.5 . Whatever was missing from the first two (which I liked), it is not missing in this one.
*Only if you have read the first two*
Teeth of Beasts starts with Henry. Remember him? Crazy Full-Blood? Well, Henry is crazier than ever. In the prologue we get to see Henry's "stay" at Lancroft Reformatory. I know Henry is a Full Blood and a monster, but those 1830s hunters, their preacher and his talk of sinning and fiery pits annoyed me more than any monster. They were trying to purge Henry's evil in a cell with a pot that was emptied twice a week, carved words/runes on the walls of the cell and a hole in the ceiling, which the preacher called "the eye of Lord". If there is any book where you feel sorry for a real monster, this may be it.
The first book was mostly about Nymar (they were the main problem), the second had a Full Blood. This one mostly deals with Skinners.
*Only if you have read the first two*
Teeth of Beasts starts with Henry. Remember him? Crazy Full-Blood? Well, Henry is crazier than ever. In the prologue we get to see Henry's "stay" at Lancroft Reformatory. I know Henry is a Full Blood and a monster, but those 1830s hunters, their preacher and his talk of sinning and fiery pits annoyed me more than any monster. They were trying to purge Henry's evil in a cell with a pot that was emptied twice a week, carved words/runes on the walls of the cell and a hole in the ceiling, which the preacher called "the eye of Lord". If there is any book where you feel sorry for a real monster, this may be it.
The first book was mostly about Nymar (they were the main problem), the second had a Full Blood. This one mostly deals with Skinners.
March 19, 2020
We meet new Skinners, a new threat, and an old threat returns. The Skinner's world grows a little, but the story focus is still the battle between human and non-human with a bit of morality thrown in.
August 21, 2012
4½ stars - There are spoilers for previous books in this review
Paige and Cole are back and there’s a new mystery in town. Something called Pestilence is killing the Nymar while another disease, called Mud Flu, though not as deadly as Pestilence, is affecting humans. Pestilence seems to be related to Henry, the crazy full blood formerly infected with the Nymar spore who we met in the first Skinners book, Blood Blade. We learn more about him and what he went through at the hands of Dr. Lamont and the Skinners centuries before.
We also meet a couple of other Skinners when Paige and Cole have to travel to St. Louis, Missouri to investigate Pestilence after an infected Nymar turns up at the restaurant looking for the pair. Going with them is another Nymar named Daniels, a secondary character I actually really like, as he tries to figure out what’s going on with the disease while still trying to find a cure for Paige’s arm. Additionally, there are also more Mongrels, Nymphs and a possible tie in with some strip clubs; of course, the guys have no problem investigating that.
There’s quite a bit of action and a little more of a mystery, or maybe I should say twist, in this book than in the previous two. As Paige, Cole and the other Skinners try and find out who’s behind Pestilence, we find out more about the history of the Skinners and the secondary characters I mentioned before have bigger roles, which is part of what made this my favorite Skinners book so far.
Now, I don’t need mushy romance in my books, in fact, I prefer them without a lot of schmaltz and flowery crap, though I do like it when the main character finds a love interest. In this series I thought Paige and Cole would hook up, then I started thinking she was just a tease, which annoyed me because I really like Cole and he’s a good guy to boot. So, I really like Pelegrimas’ writing style and Cole has quickly become one of my favorite characters. Considering what he now does, he’s very normal and I love his observations and his more than occasional snarky remarks. If you’ve liked the other two books, I think you’ll like Teeth of Beasts.
Paige and Cole are back and there’s a new mystery in town. Something called Pestilence is killing the Nymar while another disease, called Mud Flu, though not as deadly as Pestilence, is affecting humans. Pestilence seems to be related to Henry, the crazy full blood formerly infected with the Nymar spore who we met in the first Skinners book, Blood Blade. We learn more about him and what he went through at the hands of Dr. Lamont and the Skinners centuries before.
We also meet a couple of other Skinners when Paige and Cole have to travel to St. Louis, Missouri to investigate Pestilence after an infected Nymar turns up at the restaurant looking for the pair. Going with them is another Nymar named Daniels, a secondary character I actually really like, as he tries to figure out what’s going on with the disease while still trying to find a cure for Paige’s arm. Additionally, there are also more Mongrels, Nymphs and a possible tie in with some strip clubs; of course, the guys have no problem investigating that.
There’s quite a bit of action and a little more of a mystery, or maybe I should say twist, in this book than in the previous two. As Paige, Cole and the other Skinners try and find out who’s behind Pestilence, we find out more about the history of the Skinners and the secondary characters I mentioned before have bigger roles, which is part of what made this my favorite Skinners book so far.
Now, I don’t need mushy romance in my books, in fact, I prefer them without a lot of schmaltz and flowery crap, though I do like it when the main character finds a love interest. In this series I thought Paige and Cole would hook up, then I started thinking she was just a tease, which annoyed me because I really like Cole and he’s a good guy to boot. So, I really like Pelegrimas’ writing style and Cole has quickly become one of my favorite characters. Considering what he now does, he’s very normal and I love his observations and his more than occasional snarky remarks. If you’ve liked the other two books, I think you’ll like Teeth of Beasts.
January 7, 2015
Ok, The book I have read is called “Teeth of Beast” by Marcus Pelegrimages and I have to say, it was a great book. It is the third book to the “Skinner” series which revolves around the two main characters Paige and Cole. Paige and Cole aren't your average people. They are supernatural animal fighters who call themselves “Skinners”. They are part of a group of fighters that have been fighting the supernatural since before America was created.
In this book Cole and Paige are in Chicago investigating some reports of Nymar(vampires) starting to step out of line and feed in public. While they are there Paige and Cole meet up with two other skinners. On their hunt to stop the Nymar they find something deeper and worse happening. It seems like like an ancient vampire has turned up with a huge monster pet and is creating a following of other vampires and destroying everything in his path. It is up to Cole Paige and the two other skinners to stop them.
One quote that I found in this book that sparked my interest is when one of the skinners named Rico said “That’s because people like to sweep their garbage where they can’t see it and go about their day like there ain't nothen’ wrong.” And he just was not just taking in the literal term he meant that when we can not explain how or why something happened we just try to forget about it and move on and I feel that this is true and happens a lot.
All in all this is a great book but has some mature content that may not be best for all people but I would definitely recommend this book but I would strongly suggest reading the first two books so you can understand everything a whole lot better. I think I’m somewhat emotionally attached to this book and this series because I have always loved the action books with supernatural characters. This series has caught my interest and if you start reading it I am sure it will catch yours.
In this book Cole and Paige are in Chicago investigating some reports of Nymar(vampires) starting to step out of line and feed in public. While they are there Paige and Cole meet up with two other skinners. On their hunt to stop the Nymar they find something deeper and worse happening. It seems like like an ancient vampire has turned up with a huge monster pet and is creating a following of other vampires and destroying everything in his path. It is up to Cole Paige and the two other skinners to stop them.
One quote that I found in this book that sparked my interest is when one of the skinners named Rico said “That’s because people like to sweep their garbage where they can’t see it and go about their day like there ain't nothen’ wrong.” And he just was not just taking in the literal term he meant that when we can not explain how or why something happened we just try to forget about it and move on and I feel that this is true and happens a lot.
All in all this is a great book but has some mature content that may not be best for all people but I would definitely recommend this book but I would strongly suggest reading the first two books so you can understand everything a whole lot better. I think I’m somewhat emotionally attached to this book and this series because I have always loved the action books with supernatural characters. This series has caught my interest and if you start reading it I am sure it will catch yours.
October 18, 2010
Teeth of Beasts eats Twilight fans...So much more here.
I always hesitate at writing reviews because I am an avid reader not writer. That said, Marcus Pelegrimas is an
excellent story teller. There is always something going on but not so much that you cannot keep
the story in check and his words flow so you look forward to reading more. 400 pages!!! Yeah! This can be a stand alone story but I do recommend reading the other Skinners novels to make you feel like you know the characters better.
Teeth of Beasts is the third novel in Mr Pelegrimas Skinners series.
Skinners are an ancient small group of people all over the world. They have special abilities gained by studies of ancient magic and present day studies using parts and blood of creatures culled. Paige and Cole are the skinner/investigators, they have friends too. The Skinners are protectors in our world from beasts we do not know exist. Creatures like Full bloods, Half-breeds, Nymphs, (mind altering beauties), mongrels, shape shifters and Vampires. In Teeth of Beasts we have a pestilence that is effecting the human population turning them into Zombies with a viscus mud slimming out of them and it may be deadly, and who is kidnapping and murdering the Nymphs? Nymphs which have an essence that can be used in very powerful magic for those who practice it. If you are a Simon Green or Jim Butcher fan you will be hooked with Marcus Pelegrimas Skinners series. Enjoy.....
I always hesitate at writing reviews because I am an avid reader not writer. That said, Marcus Pelegrimas is an
excellent story teller. There is always something going on but not so much that you cannot keep
the story in check and his words flow so you look forward to reading more. 400 pages!!! Yeah! This can be a stand alone story but I do recommend reading the other Skinners novels to make you feel like you know the characters better.
Teeth of Beasts is the third novel in Mr Pelegrimas Skinners series.
Skinners are an ancient small group of people all over the world. They have special abilities gained by studies of ancient magic and present day studies using parts and blood of creatures culled. Paige and Cole are the skinner/investigators, they have friends too. The Skinners are protectors in our world from beasts we do not know exist. Creatures like Full bloods, Half-breeds, Nymphs, (mind altering beauties), mongrels, shape shifters and Vampires. In Teeth of Beasts we have a pestilence that is effecting the human population turning them into Zombies with a viscus mud slimming out of them and it may be deadly, and who is kidnapping and murdering the Nymphs? Nymphs which have an essence that can be used in very powerful magic for those who practice it. If you are a Simon Green or Jim Butcher fan you will be hooked with Marcus Pelegrimas Skinners series. Enjoy.....
May 6, 2010
Well folks if you haven't read any of Marcus's books then you're missing out. The first is Blood Blade, then Howling Legion...this is the 3rd and he didn't disappoint. :-) Very different take on vampires (called Nymar), werewolves and the like. Well written and awesome characters... what more can you ask for?!
Looking forward to #4!!
Looking forward to #4!!
April 6, 2013
I think my ride along with Paige and Cole need come to an end. While the creatures are great, the character interactions are boring, or over the top. Way to much talking and explaining. Don't get me wrong, there's action, but the episodes are too far apart or interrupted with verbal vomit. Not for me~
September 20, 2012
Thoroughly enjoyed! This saga just keeps getting better and better. New monsters, creatures, characters, and complications added to a vivid world and two captivating main characters (Cole & Paige) make for a spectacularly gruesome and engaging read.
December 11, 2011
I don't really know what to say about this book. I feel like as with all his other books we start out strong, slow down in the middle and finish on a high note. Oh well it's enough to keep me reading lol
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March 17, 2011Click here to find it in the catalogue
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August 4, 2011Pretty good, like this series...something little different
December 26, 2011
This is actually improving. More monsters, some occult mystery being introduced and more characters.
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July 19, 2010For some reason this one just didnt keep my attn enough to finish it.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews