The Frenzy Wolves

Lamberson’s third and final Frenzy Cycle installment (after The Frenzy War) is an engrossing tale that can stand on its own. NYPD captain Anthony Mace has won acclaim for prevailing against the Brotherhood of Torquemada, an organization known to the public as a terrorist group but in reality is an ancient sect dedicated to wiping out suspected witches and werewolves. In a contemporary New York secretly home to a pack of lycanthropes, Mace is tasked with tracking down the Full Moon Killer, an escaped murderer who has recently discovered his inner wolf, while the authorities try to suppress mounting evidence of the monsters. Mace thinks the lycanthropes pose no inherent threat to humans, but a war for supremacy among them may undermine their natural indifference. Mace is a sympathetic and thoroughly modern protagonist who agonizes over how to define terrorism in a complex world even as he longs for suburban surcease from his sorrows. The story unfolds smoothly, and, while some unwieldy characters never come alive, the plot is riveting. (Oct.)