Canyons [Mass Market Paperback]

P. D. Cacek (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 14, 2001

Picture this: you're riding the bus home from work, with the very first newspaper article every published under your byline clutched in your hot little hand, when a coked-up idiot attempts to hold up everyone on the bus. He takes a dislike to you and is about to slice you open when a large, gorgeously hairy man attacks him and saves your life. Only your rescuer is not a man, but a giant wolf who leaves a bloody pawprint on your newspaper, all over your precious byline . . .

If you're an intrepid reporter, you don't panic. You run for the newsroom to get a photo of the pawprint before it disappears . . . because the paper you work for thrives on stories of alien invasions and Elvis sightings and Bigfoot's baby, and this, unlike all of those stories, this is real.

Of course, it's not that simple. The highly civilized Denver werewolves don't want anyone to know of their existence, not even beautiful young reporters who make Lucas, the leader of the pack, think lustful thoughts. But Lucas and his pack have a much bigger problem to deal with: there's another were-pack hunting in their territory--and being messy about it. If the police solve any of those brutal, apparently random, murders, Denver's more patrician lycanthropes may wind up in big trouble.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Following her well-received first novel, Night Prayers (1998), an edgy riff on the urban vampire theme, Cacek makes an even sharper stab at another of horror's hackneyed staples, the werewolf. When a Good Samaritan shape-shifter saves aspiring journalist Cat Moselle from sure death during a bus hijacking, that act ignites a flammable chain of events in downtown Denver. Cat writes for Quest, a shameless supermarket tabloid, which transforms her "Knight in Shining Fur" into the Denver Werewolf, a headline celebrity blamed for a recent spate of bestial killings about town. In truth, Lucius Currer, Cat's supernatural savior, is a low-key lycanthrope, uncomfortable with his inescapable obligations as the alpha male of a family that resents the sudden notoriety he has brought down on them. Lucius instinctively senses something special about Cat that transcends mere physical attraction, but the couple are forced to run a gauntlet between zealous authorities, Lucius's embittered clan and a rival pack of ravenous were-folk before Cat's mystery can be revealed. Although Cacek self-consciously glosses her story with a gooey patina of beauty-and-the-beast romance, she also provides substance through her divinations of lupine predation in the fundamental relationships between men and women, parents and children, employers and employees, and journalists and news subjects. A cast of quirky characters, their witty repartee and Cacek's blend of grue and tongue-in-cheek make this one of the more engaging, if not original, werewolf yarns in recent years. (Dec. 6)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"Cacek delivers with this gruesome Denver-based werewolf thriller. Canyons is adeptly written. The plot moves and builds steadily straight through to the end. Cacek's dialog is fresh and entertaining, and her characters are well developed, unique, and engaging. Frequent pop-culture references are good fun amid the mayhem." --Jennifer A. Hall, Locus

"Werewolves tear up Denver in what looks like the first of a series by Bram Stoker-winner Cacek. Brisk, and the constant flow of bizarre headlines lends a light heart to a dark fable."--Kirkus Reviews

"Cacek doesn't pull any punches. The funny parts are very funny and the violent parts are very violent. What starts as a light-hearted romance unfolds into a deeper and darker story."--The Denver Post

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books; 1st edition (October 14, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812545346
• ISBN-13: 978-0812545340
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,424,451 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent horror novel, November 14, 2000

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Canyons (Hardcover)

If it looks and acts like a wolf pack hunting humans, it can only be a werewolf brood settling near Denver. Already residing in the Mile High City is the leader of another werewolf pack Lucius. He tries to act as human as possible. He lives in an apartment, works as a bartender, and dates female Homo Sapiens. He hides his heritage in order to protect his pack. However, his identity is in danger of exposure when he saves a woman's life from a gangbanger.

He picks the worst person to save, at least from a werewolf perspective as Cathy "Cat" Mosell works for the Quest, a tabloid so sleazy that its peers avoid it. She saw his transformation from man to wolf and reports her up close and personal observation to her editor. He runs a front-page expose claiming a dangerous werewolf runs loose in the city. The newly arrived werewolves are vermin challenging Lucius' more civilized crowd. With half the city already after them and now a deadly rival wanting supremacy, Lucius seems to have too much to deal with yet still wants Cat as his own.

This horror story looks deeply inside the heart, mind, and soul of a werewolf in such an in depth manner that readers will believe that this novel is a character study. The audience learns how the lycanthrope think and feel especially about their own species and their natural enemy humanity. In this wonderfully written work of fiction, P.D Cacek brings credence to the existence of lycanthropic creatures by making CANYONS a howling successful look at "reality."

Harriet Klausner

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars canyons, January 28, 2001

By 

trina king (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Canyons (Hardcover)

This is not your ordinary werewolf book. Using the tabloid papers as focal point for the heroine, the author presents a number of twists and turns that are quite believable. Her characters are well-developed, especially Cat Moselle. Though I found parts of the book a little too graphic for my taste, overall it delivered a satisfying read. From the ending I assume there will be more books about Cat to come.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Who Needs Character development?, December 31, 2001

By 

John Burris (Milford, Ohio USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Canyons (Hardcover)

Can anyone explain to me what the motivation of the central character was? For some reason we are supposed to believe that some kind of bond exists between Cat and Lucius but the nature of this bond is never explained. Why are they drawn to each other?
Supposedly suprising plot developments are seen coming a mile away. (Guess who else is a werewolf?) And the attempts at humor in the tabloid headlines interspersed throughout the book are groaningly awful. Lastly, the climax degenerates into a gory, splatterpunk-wannabe bloodfest. The reviews for this one led to me expect so much more.

On the plus side, the story moves along at a swift pace and the dialogue is well written and witty (the thudding attempts at humor aside.). I would just like to have seen the characters fleshed out a little more and the plot strengthened.

I know that creating a novel is hard work. I'll give Cacek credit there. But I'd really like to know what makes the central character in any novel tick. No explanation is given here and I suppose we are just expected to ignore that and get lost in all the bloodletting. If you want to read the real thing, try S.P. Somtow's "Moon Dance." (Curiously enough, Cacek cites that vastly superior novel on the Acknowledgement page.)

To sum it up, I just couldn't connect with this novel. There is an obvious setup for a sequel and I'll hope for better things. It does appear that Cacek has the chops. It just didn't come together on this one.