Silver Moon

After a slightly awkward start, this series launch gains speed, effectiveness, and depth with a decidedly different approach to the modern werewolf story. When 50-year-old Becca Thornton enters menopause, she is startled when her hot flashes lead to lycanthropy. Her lanky silver-haired neighbor Erin introduces her to “The Pack,” a group of older women whose passage into midlife triggers an ancient magic transforming them into wolf guardians of the town of Wolf’s Point. When hunters known as the Nesters arrive and offer the women a choice of cure or extermination, Becca accepts her destiny and its traditions. Lundoff effectively weaves parallels between Becca’s transformation and her coming out as a lesbian, and between the zealotry, false compassion, and thuggish coercion of the Nesters and the ex-gay movement. Deft humor, hints of romance, and well-constructed suspense leaven the occasional sturdy earnestness, while the rejection of toned hotties as the embodiment of supernatural power in favor of women whose lives have prepared them with the wisdom for their new role is refreshing. (June)