Customer Reviews

Ferocity

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Cath and her daughter have just moved out to the country, after Cath's husband was horribly murdered. In the countryside, Cath hopes to escape her grief and pain, to write her novels in solitude. Her new neighbor, Drew, is also recovering from a spouse's horrible death. Drew was once a successful farmer; after his wife died, he left all that behind. The only thing that keeps him going now is his new hobby: trying to prove the existence of the Big Cats.

For Drew has seem them: black as a panther, yet bigger and more ferocious. Their camoflage abilities are almost supernatural; their scent is musky and dense. They are out there, hiding, waiting, biding their time; but now a violent storm is coming, along with violent humans, and the Big Cats and humans will come face-to-face...

"Ferocity" was surprisingly good. Normally, horror novels of this nature tend to be paint-by-numbers efforts; fortunately, Stephen Laws is a capable writer, who turns a cliched (but interesting) story into a wonderful (and still interesting) novel. The characters (human and demonic feline) are deep and believable; the atmosphere, especially during the final hundred pages, is tense and almost unbearable. This novel isn't flat-out scary, but it IS entertaining, and provides an excellent tale to keep you awake at night.

"Ferocity" is a fun thrill-ride; I wouldn't even call it horror, because there aren't really many aspects of horror - I honestly don't consider wild animals acting like wild animals DO to be horrific, but that's just me! Whomever wrote the description on the back of the book got it ALL wrong, so don't go by what it says. Here's the essential plot in a nutshell:
Cath and Drew are neighbors who haven't met. Both had spouses killed in tragic accidents - Cath's husband was stabbed while they were visiting New York to celebrate her first book being made into a movie and Drew's wife fell into a harvesting combine when the brake that was holding it on the hill vibrated free and it started moving. One night, while Drew is driving home, a reckless driver runs him off the road in front of Cath's house. Cath's housekeeper - Fay - who also taught Drew while he was in school, comes out and hauls him into the house. When Fay roaps them both into giving a talk about their personal specialities - Cath is a novelist (one of the few things the description on the cover did right) and Drew has been tracking the Big Cats of the Northumberland Fells for several years. Many people believe the Big Cats to be a myth, but the farmers who are losing livestock are not amused. Drew has actually had an upclose & personal with one of them and he recalls them as being much larger than the panther they resemble and having some way of remaining unseen, even in areas in which they should be readily visible. After the talk they all go out to dinner and of course Drew and Cath hit it off.

A few days later Drew calls Cath over to announce he has hit a Big Cat with a tranquilizer dart but when they go to check on it, it has somehow escaped; leaving being a spitting, clawing cub that itself is two feet long and a foot high, even though it is only 3 months old. It unfortunately gets itself caught in the net that Drew had put up to keep the older one in and while they are trying to extricate the little one, the big one attacks. When they are forced to shoot the big one again - in the mouth - to save their lives, Drew is horribly afraid they might have given it an overdose, so they haul it home, putting it into a cage that Drew built over the years. A major storm is rising - one that no one has been able to forecast, which has happened increasingly over the past few years - and the two are overcome with passion, coming to themselves just in time to hear the Big Cat die, which upsets Drew, as he never meant to hurt him.

Add murderous drug runners into the mix, who take Cath and Drew hostage after Cath rescues them from a car accident of their own, and the momma Big Cat, who comes looking for her mate in the middle of the storm, and this book, especially the last half of it, is quite a page turner.

I admit I would have preferred this to be more in English-speak rather than Americanized, but it was still a terrific book and Stephen Laws knows, like no other, how to spin an eerie thriller. Don't miss it!

This is my second time reading Stephen Laws and my second time being bored and frustrated with his style. I guess he's not the writer for me, which saddens me because his ideas are pretty interesting. This looked so promising, the lovely cover that reflects my morning mood when I have to get up for work, the man eating beast idea with a twists, yeah ...I was bored to tears reading it, in fact it was one book that I wasn't in a rush to finish, it was dry, dull and uninspiring, I hate to describe a book in such a way but I disliked it even more when I finally finished it then when I was stuck half way through the ridiculous plotline...the lame characters, the strange cat creature one knows nothing about when the last page is turned, the flat and annoying bad guys at the end that only seemed to ruin the story...and never mind that at some points the tale is told form the view of the giant cat and even from the little girl's point of view, who's mom is one of the most boring characters ever created. That to me was a speed bump every time the story seemed to get somewhere...I wouldn't categorize this as horror, there's not one scary moment in here, and the writing was a bit tough to get through, I found it lackluster and a bit confusing at times, it read like a low budget movie that should have never been released.

Basically this book is about two people who have lost a loved one in the past. Neighbors who I guess never looked at each other before, who seem to suddenly make a match. Unfortunately a huge storm is coming and at the same time some drug smuggling whackos are in town, on top of that there's the big black cat mystery going around...all this gets stirred with a crooked spoon to make a batch of stinky bad story soup. Maybe, just maybe if Cath wasn't pathetic (who laughs at a bum on the street holding you up for money, so your husband can get stabbed and killed) and her love interest wasn't uninteresting and the giant cant didn't do invisible camouflage then the tale would be better but I disliked it tremendously and I think I'm done reading his books, I get no pleasure from his stories, that's quiet clear by now.

- Kasia S.

Stephen Laws does it again, it' been a long wait for another of his novels, but worth it.This one is set on the Northumberland moors where it seems a "big cat" could be stalking the livestock. It's only a matter of time before it gets a human victim! There have always been rumours of sightings of large cats on the moors of the U.K. and Scotland. Stephen Laws goes for the jugular here and creates a believable novel of thrills and tension.the story centres on Cath Lane and her daughter who live on the lonely. windswept moors, also living not so far away is Drew Hall, a lonely guy who thrives on the bleak life on the moors. These two lonely individuals are bought together to face up to the possibilty of these big cats. More than that is about to descend into their secluded world. Three desperate criminals are about to change their lives forever. This is a well written novel with great characters you actually find yourself caring about. That is always the case with Mr. Laws , he creates characters you can grow to admire and perhaps on ocassion identify with. At the same time his three villains jump off the page and are truly terrifying. Grab a good read, you won't be able to put this one down.

I wanted to like this book, and for most of its length I really did. Laws is so sure-footed in his handling of the characters and storyline that he keeps the reader's interest even while his creature is entirely off-stage for the first several chapters. Everything works well until his well-rendered natural creature displays the supernatural ability, which is never explained or even really discussed, to make itself invisible even at close range with no cover handy. Laws adds a second note of unreality at the end when his heroes decide to bury the one body of a cat they've killed and not reveal the species' existence. Never do they mention that the police are certain to notice their farm is strewn with dead human bodies which have, unmistakably, been torn apart by a very large predator. I was sorry to have to downgrade this review from four-star territory.

Well, this was a rather silly book, but still entertaining. The picture on the cover attracted me because it is so similar to the panther from "Garfield in the Rough." I found the characters to be likable, but the plot on the whole was rather average. I would have liked more explanation about these Big Cats of the Moors. I think it would have rounded the story out a bit more and made it more enjoyable. One small thing that did put me off to the wrong start with this book was a really surprising editing mistake- "you're" means you are... "your" indicates possession. Kind of a shocking mistake to see in not only a published book, but so early into a book as well. Usually the first 50 pages are edited with a fine-tooth comb so as to not put people off... Still, it was a pretty fun book and certainly a fast read. I do not, however, see myself going to any trouble to find any of this author's other books.

I like Stephen Laws (maybe because his first name is Stephen, like the one, you know, the King that we all love LOL.) Actually I find his books above average and I don't understand why Leisure keeps on printing silly books on top of each other while refusing to reissue Laws out-of-print books...Anyway I have read three of his books and they were all good stories.

But not this one. Not because it is not a fast or exciting story, but because the characters are so dull and so stupid that whatever fun the story may have quickly goes out of the window. Imagine that you and your friend are lurking around the den of a big, voracious cat and you are starting...to kiss and fondle each other...of all the places and of all the times...you kiss, you coo like romantic teenagers...and instead of running away... all the while a baby cat is crying at the top of its lungs, emitting help signals to his/ her parents and these stupid characters are kissing just one step short of going all the way and making love inside the den. Of course, one of the parent cats (surprise suprise) comes along and attacks. And of course (surprise surprise) you feel so mad at the stupidity of the characters and the excitement factor becomes zero.

The stupidity does not end there.

After the couple eventually makes love (while a big cat is lying down in the basement, the other cat is on the prowl and a storm is to break out), Cath, the stupid mother and writer, gets up, notices the storm, finally remembers her daughter and friend looking after her and tries to call them. But the farm is in the hollow of the valley the mobile phone does not work So what does she do? Like every wise mother, she decides to hit the road (after several maudlin scenes by the way. so far so good.

After hitting road, what do you dou? As soon as you leave that hollow, you try to call home, don't you? So that you can tell them you are ok, you can assure them everything is fine and you are coming along in one piece....

Unfortunately Cath does not act like this...so that Laws could manipulate the plot to his own interests, albeit its distorted logic.

All in all this kind of stupid acts is so abundant that any horror lurking there is buried further.

The cats also pose another problem. Irrationally they are sometimes implied to have "demonic" connections beyond the regular cat race not unlike Stephen King's Cujo. But while references to supernatural aspects were somehow menacing in Cujo, in Ferocity it just becomes confusing and flat. Cats sometimes disappear only to appear a minute later...there is a ghost twin lurking around the original "physical" one...There is no explanation to these events nor are they better described at any part.

To sum up, stupid characters, cats that cannot decide to be shy and afraid or fearsome and wild, and a villain who should have died by loss of blood because of a fractured leg but somehow gets stronger and alive and works like a hitman after his leg is almost literally torn away make this story dull and unsatisfactory.

Pass this up and read another Laws book.

After writer Cath Lane's husband was killed by a mugger in New York City, she moves with her daughter Rynne to a rural town in the Northumberland Moors. Although two years have passed, Cath still grieves and hasn't written a book since the mugging. Drew Hall, the owner of Fell Farm is their nearest neighbor and is also mourning for his wife who was killed when she fell into their shredder. They meet when Drew is in a near accident by Cath's home. Her housekeeper Faye assures Cath that Drew is a wonderful person.

When they both give a talk at the meeting hall, Drew and Cath find they like each other. One day Drew calls her to come up to the farm because he wants to tell her something. There are Big Cats on his land, panther looking with a demonic face and he has spent the last two years hunting them because they have some unknown way of camouflaging themselves that makes them impossible to catch. They accidentally kill one of the creatures, capture another and put both in a cage but the dead one's mate is coming. While they are dealing with that problem, they are taken hostage by three killers who have stolen drugs from a businessman in town. The storm keeps them trapped in the house with a monster coming for them and it will be a miracle if any of them make it out alive.

FEROCITY is part horror, part thriller and a totally entertaining work reminiscent of THE FLOCK by James Robert Smith. There is plenty of action on different fronts, the big cats, the kidnappers, and the storm but it is the characters who make this book a cut above the average horror thriller. The protagonists are likeable and will go to the wall for each other and Cath's daughter. Though over the top, this is definitely a one sitting reading experience.

Harriet Klausner