The Frenzy War

In a world where good-guy werewolves are persecuted by vicious Catholics, police captain Anthony Mace, banished to an administrative job after the Manhattan Werewolf case (described in 2010’s The Frenzy Way), finds his experience suddenly in demand when a team of assassins arrives in New York City to destroy a peaceful local werewolf pack. Sanctioned by a secret Vatican faction and armed with everything from silver swords to military ordnance, the Brotherhood of Torquemada opens its war by kidnapping teenage Wolf Rhonda Wilson and murdering another young Wolf. As more Wolves are slaughtered and alpha Gabriel Domini’s control over his pack is threatened, Mace and a secret team of police detectives and FBI agents must stop the Torquemadans while hiding the Wolves’ existence from the public. Despite paper-thin characterization, the brisk action and lurid scenes of death and dismemberment produce a lively page-turner with an unusually balanced approach to its monsters, unexpected in a tale that’s equal parts police procedural and blood-drenched horror. (June)