Dying Bites takes us on a journey to a parallel universe where the correlations are enough to make you feel like you've never left home but the dissimilarities are enough to shock you and make you wonder where you might find a pair of ruby slippers of your own. 
 Such is the situation that FBI Agent and Criminal Profiler Jace Valcheck finds herself in when she's abducted by the NSA of her parallel universe. It seems that her expertise is one they lack in the USA (that's the Unnatural States of America.) 
 D.D. Barant excels in crafting a believable voice for our narrator, Jace, and handily utilizes her investigative and profiling skills not only to uncover the mystery alongside the reader, but to also observe and experience this brave new world. The world building is first rate and rarely does the author indulge in an obvious info-dump to explain things, instead relying on Jace's narration and interactions with the supporting cast. In fact, like any branch of the government that deals in secrets, often what Jace is told is a loose collection of half truths; leaving her to figure out how large a grain of salt she should take with the "intel" provided. 
 What made this book so engaging for me is that not only does Jace work to solve the mystery before her, she also takes the time to discover things about herself as well. She engages in interpersonal relationships, banter, analysis, prejudices and even a bit of romance. In other words, Barant doesn't give us just part of a character, but a whole one. One with both flaws and assets. Further, Barant has Jace work within her limitations as a human in a supernatural world. More than once Jace is referred to as an "unenhanced" human by others, but never does she herself lament her status, rather she cherishes her humanity. 
 Barant's take on the mythological cannon is an interesting one and he works well within the rules laid out. Vampires (pires), Lycanthropes (thropes) and Golems (lems) make up the majority of the supernatural element with a bit of magic thrown in. There is an expansion of the cannon in the last third of the book, but Barrant does a decent job of setting up the expectation for this bigger and fuller picture of Jace's new world order without it seeming too much like plot-hole-putty. 
 My only complaint with this book was the ending. Barant pulls the pieces of the puzzle together quite skillfully, but the ending seems purposefully stretched to allow for continuation of the series. I'm not sad the series is being continued, but I do wish that Barant didn't show his hand quite so much when doing so.