Bad Wolf: Bad Wolf Chronicles - Book 1

First, I will say that werewolf horror ranks at the top of my love-to-read list. Give me a good rampaging werewolf terrorizing the countryside or that eerie sensation of something terrible tracking (hunting) you and there is not a whole lot you can do about it and I am happy. Now, Bad Wolf: This first book in the "Bad Wolf Chronicles" showed up as a freebie and I thought I would give it a try. Overall, I liked this book. The werewolf is your basic horror werewolf. The story is a mixed bag of police procedure, animal revolt, and good old-fashioned werewolf menace. I thought the story was solid and the characters were well developed. However, there is a distinct lack of a good editor's hand here. Some sentence structuring left me a bit puzzled and I ended up having to go back several times and re-read a section to make sure I understood correctly. I had to load up the dictionary to look up meanings of some words and once or twice resorted to on-line searches to find definitions. Not that I couldn't glean the meaning intended from the use but because I was sure some of these were entirely made up by the author. There was also an over usage problem with some phrasing. (If I never read "chin-cocked" in a book again I will be happy). In the end, I am undecided on whether or not to go further with the next book in the series. Although the main story is wrapped up in this book you will definitely need to continue on to know what happens to the characters as their fates are left unanswered. If the second book shows up as a freebie then I will definitely get it but I just don't know if it is worth the purchase otherwise.

Wow, that was a really pleasant surprise! I admit that I had purchased 'Bad Wolf' primarily because (a) I had had enough of zombies and vampires for a while and (b) well, it was affordable and worth the risk (and by risk I mean any book that has a gun on the cover and shouts 'detective noir drama'! is usually something I avoid). But despite the expected TV series worthy clichés, McGregor has written an extremely smooth, fast-moving thriller that hooked me in right away! The characters have real and for the most part "sympathetic" personalities (even the baddies are fairly well-rounded) and the entire cast is merged together to create an all-too-plausible scenario! I'm definitely going to check out the next book!

Excellent read! Kept me hooked until the end, although it did start off a little slow. Pleasantly surprised - it handled the whole werewolf genre without schlock & in a quite believable way for a fantasy novel. Will be looking to see what happens to Lara in the second novel with baited breath!