Full Wolf Moon

Starred review from April 3, 2017
In bestseller Childs’s scary, atmospheric fifth novel featuring Jeremy Logan, a Yale history professor and investigator of unexplained phenomena (after 2015’s The Forgotten Room), Logan looks for a rational explanation for rumors of werewolves. He has come to Cloudwater, a secluded Adirondacks retreat for creative people, to finish writing a monograph on heresy in the Middle Ages. But his plans are disrupted by a plea for help from an old college friend, forest ranger Randall Jessup. Jessup is worried by the deaths in recent months of two young, fit, highly experienced backpackers, each of whom was torn to pieces during a full moon near the small, isolated town of Pike Hollow. The official line is that the hikers were the victims of a bear, but Jessup doesn’t buy it. Logan agrees to help out and begins his inquiries in Pike Hollow, whose few stores are evocatively described as “pushed up close against the road as if grasping at a life preserver.” Fans of The X-Files will be enthralled. Agent: Eric Simonoff, William Morris Endeavor.

Enigmatologist Jeremy Logan returns for another strange case in this atmospheric but uneven audiobook. In the remote woods of the Adirondacks, something is violently killing hikers. The police suspect bear attacks, but unexplained forensic evidence and a clear connection between the attacks and the full moon suggest the paranormal. Johnathan McClain's folksy narration easily draws in listeners and makes it all the more jarring when terror descends. Logan is a likable everyman despite his unusual avocation, and his camaraderie with philosopher/forest ranger Randall Jessup is entirely believable. McClain also delivers an array of unique accents, especially for a secluded clan of suspected werewolves. Despite McClain's best efforts, though, the story is ultimately weighed down by overwrought exposition and an uninspired conclusion. A.T.N. � AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine