Return of the Werewolf
By Guy N. Smith
1977 New English Library
Paperback, 112 pages
This slim tome is the sequel to
the Master’s (also slim) debut horror novel Werewolf by Moonlight, which
was originally published by NEL in 1974. In between the two books, he wrote
some classics like The Sucking Pit and the first Crabs novel. He’d also
penned a couple of Walt Disney movie novelizations. Go figure!
This one picks up a year after Werewolf
by Moonlight ends, with the body of the wolfman being stolen from its
grave. (I’ll try to not spoil either book.) And, of course, it’s not too long
before the grisly murders start up again on Black Hill. Some eyewitnesses swear
they saw a werewolf, too. The story plays out as a Whodunit, with possible
suspects and red herrings on every page.
The cast from the first book is
back (or dead and disinterred) and if you haven’t read the first book
yet, Smith makes it easy to know who’s who and what they were up
to in the previous novel. Of course, you will spoil the mystery of the
first book by reading this one first, but who cares? This sequel is a lot less
gory and has less sexual situations than its predecessor, but it is still a
satisfying page turner. It’s too short to be any other way!
The fur was flying again a year
later when Smith unleashed Son of the Werewolf (1978), completing the
trilogy. All three books have been collected into Werewolf Omnibus
(Sinister House, 2019), along with a short story. It’s also on Kindle for you
freaks. Unfortunately, not included in the Omnibus is Smith’s other
werewolf novel, Night of the Werewolf. Originally published in 1976 in
Germany (only) as "Der Ruf
des Werwolfs", it was first translated and serialized in the
Smith-centric zine Graveyard Rendezvous and later collected as a full
novel by Black Hill Books in 2011. It would have been a nice addition.
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