Maya is a skin-walker, possessed of incredible senses, and the ability to shift into a cougar, not that she's managed to do so yet. And she's not the only one in the group to be coming into some supernatural powers...
It's been so long since I read [[Darkness Rising: The Gathering by Kelley Armstrong|The Gathering]] that I struggled to remember the events that led Maya to the point she starts this instalment at. And Armstrong doesn't give you much time to settle in to the story - it's all action from the word go.
Surprisingly, for a book that is by and large a story about walking through the woods, the tension never eases up, and will have you turning pages as fast as if the action set pieces were moving from continent to continent. In fact, the claustrophobic setting of the forest added its own layer of fear. Maya may have the upper hand in the forest - as natural a home to her as her own house - but the ever present danger of getting lost, dehydrated or hypothermic made the setting an antagonist as much as the men creeping round with tranquilliser darts.