Mark of the Werewolf

Sackett's ( Blood of the Impaler ) version of the werewolf legend features a modern-day racist maniac involved in genetic research who decides to capture Janos Kaldy, the first of the lycanthropes, in order to extract from him a formula for immortality. A theologian-turned-doctor forced to join the project hypnotizes Kaldy to uncover the ultimate cause of the werewolf's malady, and stumbles into vivid memories of historical and religious events. The plot is absorbing and imaginative, but Sackett frequently lapses into the archaic, stilted tones of a B-grade horror film, staging irritating, circular conversations that are intended to be fraught with meaning but succeed only in communicating the banal (``Your salvation can't come from me or from anyone else. It has to come from within your own heart''). (Feb.)