Blood Red

Blood Red is a novel by the American writer Mercedes Lackey, published in 2014. It is the ninth book of the Elemental Masters series, in which magic is divided among the classical elements and each master works with one of them.

Gretchen Schwarzwald is the woman at the centre of it. She comes from the Black Forest in Germany, and she is the figure behind the story of Little Red Riding Hood: ten years before the novel begins she was orphaned by an Earth Master who wanted her parents' land.

That master killed the family using werewolves he had created, and Gretchen was rescued by a Fire Master from the Woodsman's Lodge, who taught her to use the fire powers she had in her. Now another pack of werewolves is ravaging Exmoor.

Gretchen comes to London to help the White Lodge destroy the pack and to find the Elemental Master behind it. The novel follows the hunt for both, in a country where the weather and the old stories are as much part of the setting as the magic is.