What a really good werewolf tale. Full of gore and suspense and it's left open for another book. 10/10 for me. ( )

What a fab read, dark and mysterious, gory and suspense filled. A great tale with a few twists along the way. ( )

Not exactly an original urban fantasy premise, but for a first attempt from an author who apparently doesn't normally write fiction, not bad either.

Laura Greenacre is a werewolf, something she's known about since she was young, but as her family was murdered when she was four she has no idea how or why she exists. She's been existing with the dregs of society hiding her secrets and scarcely interacting with the world. John Thorn is a police officer on bodyguard duty for the famous Sir Adam Templeman. When the guard dogs are brutally killed during one of Templeman's parties he realises that his job might not be as easy as first thought. Sir Adam's son Michael obviously knows more about this than seems reasonable and John Thorn's instincts are roused.

Multiple points of View all surround Laura and it's only in a few chapters that we get to see how she thinks and feels. Together with rapid jumps in time and location make the opening third of this book a bit of a confusing and disorientating read, but it's worth sticking with as the characters settle down and the pace picks up.

There seems to be a trend in modern urban fantasy for plenty of violence and sex, and this is no exception. I'm not quite sure why it's necessary, animals don't have sex any more often than humans, and its not clear that they enjoy it more either, but that doesn't stop authors from shovelling it in. It's not too graphic in Maneater, although the violence quotient is fairly high as may be expected from a werewolf.

Plotwise it all hangs together quite well. There seems to be a sideplot featuring a rapist picking on one of Laura's colleagues added for no reason relating to the main events. Maybe an overly fierce editor at work paring out some extra details that could have remained in situ - also the case in the early parts of the book where more characterisation would have been appreciated. The other notable hole is the complete ineptitude of the police in following leads or using technology available in the explicitly stated 1999s. Despite this it remains an enjoyable if dark read. There is some genuinely funny 1 liners, and several very good moments of dramatic tension, plus of course Laura.

The ending is obviously set up for a sequel - a bad habit for authors to get into - but there is enough association with the characters that I'd be interested in reading it whenever it comes out providing that, unlike so many of its contemporaries, it doesn't descend into a sex and violence fest, that this book manages to avoid so well.

Overall, an enjoyable romp through the Northern English countryside and a good look at the darker underbelly of life.
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hmm. 3.5* seems fair. It's very violent and doesn't really offer much in the way of redeeming qualities or moral ambiguities - a proper werewolf in other words, rather than the sparkly versions of latter day urban fantasy. ( )

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