Customer Reviews

The dark cry of the moon

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There's really not a whole heck of a lot you can do with a werewolf tale. Full moon, the change, silver bullets, all that stuff. This short novel by Charles L. Grant is just an average werewolf story told in the traditional style. Regrettably, the book gets off to a very bad start, in my opinion. It was hard to keep the characters straight as I was transported back and forth between them, and I also had trouble picturing the setting of the action in place and time. After about twenty pages, the story settled down into a decent rhythm, and things finally started making more sense to me. It is obvious from the start that the string of murders in town is the work of a werewolf. Basically, you have to wait for the authorities, namely Chief Lucas Stockton, to become convinced of the true nature of the beast. Once that inevitably happens, the only remaining question concerns the identity of the afflicted man. There are a few choices we are given to consider, but I thought the truth was a little obvious long before the conclusion played itself out. This isn't a bad novel, but it isn't a particularly good one either. It can ably serve as a quick diversion, but basically it is a rather forgettable work of fiction.

For those of us who grew up (or old) watching all those classic Universal and Hammer films, Charles L. Grant's retro-gothic novels (Dark Cry being part of a "trilogy" of classic monster stories set in his fictional Jersey stomping ground of Oxrun Station) will be something to warm the fan's heart even as it chills the bones, what with all that joyful emphasis on character and atmosphere, mysterious half-explained events, and familiar plots. Horror fans who expect buckets of grue and in your face monster confrontations will just wonder where all the horror is supposed to be.