Skin of the Wolf

June 2, 2014
Cabot’s first supernatural thriller, 2013’s Blood of the Lamb, introduced the Noantri, once normal people transformed centuries ago by a mysterious organism into vampires. The Noantri leadership made a secret pact with the Catholic Church to avoid persecution. In this superior, if still derivative, sequel, Noantri expert and art historian Livia Pietro is disturbed to learn of a savage murder at Sotheby’s Manhattan location that coincides with the theft of a prized wolf mask; even more upsetting is the revelation that a genetic mutation has created the Shifters, Native American werewolves who fear that discovery of their existence will lead to another campaign of eradication targeting their people. Cabot (the pen name of S.J. Rozan and Carlos Dews) takes a light approach (e.g., “Was he really sitting in a New York town house listening to two European vampires accuse an Abenaki Indian of being a werewolf?” a character asks himself), but this may limit readers’ engagement with the mythology. Agent: Steve Axelrod, Axelrod Agency.

July 15, 2014
A supernatural slugfest that aspiresto be literature but collapses under its own weight.In calculus, the derivative of aderivative is a-well, a tangent gone astray. So it is with this book, whichechoes many, many others without quite finding its own way. A wolf running wildin Central Park? Jim Harrison, check. Shape-shifters versus the children of thenight? Charlaine Harris, check. Secret rituals of the Catholic Church exposed?Dan Brown, check. And let's not forget James Fenimore Cooper. If this wereparody, all would be forgiven. Assuming best-case homage, the project is stilla curious one; one supposes it's a mortgage-paying enterprise for Cabot (Bloodof the Lamb, 2013)-the pseudonym of Carlos Dew, a literature professor inRome, and S.J. Rozan, a crime fiction writer in Brooklyn-and not an effort tobreak new ground and/or raise the bar in the realm of supernatural fiction.That said, the storytelling is competent, with all the requisitewindow-rattling portents: "Natural order would be restored, ancient wrongswould be righted. It would take time; but once it began it could not be stoppedany more than a raging fire could be hounded back into lightning in the sky."Hounded: a tasty word for a loup-garou, that. The wolves who are men wish to take possession of a certain object tohelp the transformation along, but the vampires, some of whom are perpetualgrad students, being undead and unpressed for time and all, seem determined toget in the way, as do the human scholars, priests, and assorted cops andcivilians who get bound up in the tale. A useful takeaway: If you should happento become a vampire, it's easy to outlive your Social Security payments, sotake a thought lest you find yourself "facing eternity penniless." And did wemention the soupcon of Braveheart at the end of the whole shebang?Entertaining enough. Still, in thewords of the golem, who's bound to turn up in the next installment, if currenttrends hold: Meh.

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Starred review from June 15, 2014

Picking up a year after the events of Cabot's Blood of the Lamb, art historian Livia Pietro, scholar Spencer George, and Father Thomas Kelly reunite in New York, where Livia attends a conference on Native American art. Concurrent with the conference is Sotheby's annual auction of American Indian art, including a highly prized ritual wolf mask. During a private preview, Livia, a Noantri (vampire) who is hypersensitive to people and objects, senses the mask is not entirely as represented. This rare object, coveted by collectors, is the holy grail for a group of Others seeking to use it in a modern shape-shifting ceremony with potentially devastating consequences for humanity. Those familiar with Stephenie Meyer's "Twilight" saga will appreciate the depiction of Noantri and shape-shifters, while fans of Katherine Neville, Steve Berry, and Raymond Khoury will enjoy the relic element. VERDICT Part paranormal/religious thriller, part Native American ethnography, this is an exciting and atmospheric excursion through "cataclysm-causing artifact" literary territory. Although this is a sequel, Cabot (the pen name of coauthors Carlos Dews and S.J. Rozan) provides sufficient flashbacks for new readers to jump in without feeling lost. [See Prepub Alert, 1/10/14.]--Laura Cifelli, Fort Myers-Lee Cty. P.L., FL

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