The Mammoth Book of Werewolves Book

The third of Stephen Jones’ excellent MAMMOTH anthologies I’d read following on from TERROR and VAMPIRES. By now, I knew what to expect, so was looking forward to indulging myself in a huge compendium of every werewolf-themed horror story under the sun.

Clive Barker kicks off again with TWILIGHT AT THE TOWERS, an atypical Cold War thriller mixing in some shape-shifting shenanigans. It’s extremely gory, pretty much unique, and fairly enthralling. I was hooked. By comparison, Scott Bradfield’s THE DREAM OF THE WOLF is less impressive: a subtle, psychological approach to lycanthropy, about a man haunted by his eerie dream world. It’s readable if not profound.

Ramsey Campbell delivers an E.C. comic-style twist in NIGHT BEAT, a short outing in which a policeman tracks a murderer to a museum only to uncover a sinister secret. I found it very similar to Campbell’s vampire offering, CONVERSION, and the two could almost go hand-in-hand. R. Chetwynd-Hayes goes for the predictable with THE WEREWOLF, YET another story set in a ruined farmhouse on the moors. The ideas may be straightforward (sometimes mundane) but something keeps this one eminently readable.

Michael Marshall Smith hits the high notes with RAIN FALLS, another unique outing taking place in a single location: a crowded pub. It’s compulsive and harrowing, with Smith putting you into the thick of the action as few others can. Stephen Laws’ GUILTY PARTY, in which a man walking in a county lane on a cold winter’s night meets something hairy, is more typical, an able mix of grue and fear.

Roberta Lannes goes for the postmodernist approach with ESSENCE OF THE BEAST, a tragic-romance that’s one of the more original outings here. I would have liked a little more detail, but this is good, for the most part. Mark Morris goes for a no-nonsense, no-frills approach with IMMORTAL, a chilly police procedural with forensic gore and an excellent showdown in a deserted railway station.

Basil Copper’s CRY WOLF is a solid if unremarkable mystery yarn with a werewolf laying siege to a snowbound village. I found it a little disappointing in terms of plot, but the suspense moves it along. RUG is Graham Masterton’s spin on the sub-genre and, if you’re familiar at all with this author you’ll know to expect the grisliness on offer here.

Hugh B. Cave writers THE WHISPERERS, another couple-moves-into-haunted-house tale, and there’s a nihilism in his writing that reminded me of Stephen King. It’s not one of his best, but there’s far worse out there. David Sutton adopts a dreamlike approach in AND I SHALL GO IN THE DEVIL’S NAME, a beautiful ‘holiday horror’ set in some crumbling Celtic graveyards on the isle of Bute. Peter Tremayne’s THE FOXES OF FASCOUM is another one with Celtic folklore at heart, a fine Irish mix of scholarship and the supernatural.

Karl Edward Wagner was an author with a hugely varied talent, and ONE PARIS NIGHT is pure pulp. A cowboy and an English lord confront a werewolf in a shelled-out Paris church, and you don’t need to know anymore than that. It’s feisty, fun and bloody with it. Brian Mooney ploughs Native American folklore in SOUL OF THE WOLF, delivering a careful build-up and tons of bloody carnage in the wake of a wolf curse. I found it spellbinding.

Manly Wade Wellman features his number-one psychic sleuth, Judge Hilary Pursuivant, in THE HAIRY ONES SHALL DANCE (great title). It’s got a cracking pace, tons of atmosphere and white knuckle action to rival Robert E. Howard at his best – I loved it. After this, Adrian Cole’s guys-with-guns-vs-werebeasts story, HEART OF THE BEAST, is merely okay.

Les Daniels reveals some of his splendid imagination in WEREMAN, a typical werewolf story enlivened by artistic prose and a ton of creativity, all packed into a short narrative. Then there’s a were-panther at large in Nicholas Royle’s ANYTHING BUT YOUR KIND, in which an ageing teacher finds himself attracted to a student holding a dark secret. Believable psychology is this tale’s strength.

THE NIGHTHAWK, by Dennis Etchison, goes for the weird and wild approach, an ambiguous offering in which you’re dropped into the middle of a plot and have to piece together the clues to figure out what the hell’s going on. It’s different, as is David Case’s THE CELL, a novella in which a guy keeps a diary in which he describes gradually turning into a werewolf. At first I found it too simplistic, but then it turns full of torment and ends up malignant and disturbing. Suzy McKee Charnas delivers BOOBS, an award-winning short equating a lycanthropic curse with puberty: it’s high school horror a la CARRIE, and written very well.

Kim Newman has (almost) the final word with OUT OF THE NIGHT, WHEN THE FULL MOON IS BRIGHT, another novella. It’s set in a futuristic LA, a city of riots between gang members and police, and unique and unstoppable are two words I’d use to describe it. There’s extreme violence here, police corruption, werewolfism and even the Spanish legend of Zorro. Hats off to Newman for his breadth of knowledge and skill in storytelling: I was utterly enveloped in his world.

Jo Fletcher’s brief poem BRIGHT OF THE MOON sums the collection up with an evocative look at the topic.