Wolf Hunt 2
Jeff Strand
Dark Regions Press
October 2014
Reviewed by Michael R. Collings
George Orton and Lou Flynn are having another bad day with werewolves.
Their first encounter with the creatures—detailed in Wolf Hunt (2011, 2014)—consisted of taking a contract to transport one on the orders of a shady but powerful underworld boss. It wasn’t entirely their fault that Ivan Spinner broke loose and led them on a bloody, not-so-merry chase through the woods. In their defense, neither George nor Lou, like any rational thugs, actually believed werewolves existed until the man locked in the cage in the back of their van reached out with an extremely long, extremely hirsute arm. Eventually, after a number of hair-raising escapes and escapades, they killed him. And took off for foreign parts to lay low. (For a review, click here.)
Quick cut to some months later: a one-room hut in Costa Rica, where George and Lou are sweltering, sipping margaritas, and watching a telenovela. They are attacked by Mr. Dewey’s men. They kill Mr. Dewey’s men.
Another quick cut, this time to Northern Ontario: George and Lou are wrapped in blankets to avoid freezing to death and arguing about the efficacies of various tortures. They are attacked by Mr. Dewey’s men and Mr. Dewey. They do not kill M. Dewey or his men. This time, they are captured.
And thus (in seven pages of mayhem and witticisms) Wolf Hunt 2 begins. George and Lou are taken to winter-bound Minnesota…in a cage in the back of a van. This time their assignment is not merely to transport a werewolf but to kidnap one—a fourteen-year-old school girl named Ally. Like Ivan, she looks nothing like a werewolf. Like Ivan would have, had he had a chance, she protests at being kidnapped. Protests vehemently.
And transforms, heading for the nearby woods.
Against all of their better instincts, wishes, and judgments (and though they are professional thugs, they are not stupid thugs) George and Lou must capture Ally before she tears anyone apart, and, at the same time, avoid harming her. Low-lifes they may be, and occasional finger-breakers and knee-shatterers, but they are determined not to injure a girl, even though in her werewolf state she is eminently capable of damaging them.
What neither George, Lou, nor Ally know is that a number of others are invested in capturing Ally. On a sliding scale of Goodness, George and Lou are, it must be admitted, well over the median line onto the side of Bad. But they do have standards and try to maintain to them. Ally’s position is ambivalent—as a human she is an innocent and therefore good; as a werewolf….
Mr. Dewey is venal and self-serving; he wants a brain transplant from a possibly immortal (or at least self-healing) creature and will go to any expense to get one. His colleague, an old man named Reith, craves revenge against any and all werewolves. Their hired minions will do anything for money. None of the men have any visible scruples. As a result, their positions on the scale lie well beyond George’s and Lou’s: they are Depraved.
None of these, however, are aware that Ally has an extended family…of sorts: her father, Shane; his girlfriend, Robyn; and his best friend, for reasons best explained by the text called Crabs. They are all werewolves. In their human forms they are (with the signal exception of Crabs) mild-mannered office workers. When they transform, they are rapacious, single-minded, gluttonous, sex-obsessed, bloody-minded murder-machines with few principles and no consciences. And they want Ally back. No matter who has to die.
Actually, the more people that have to die, the better the trio will like it. On the sliding scale, they are pure Evil (pronounced in the villain-accepted way, E-vil).
And then there is Eugene—but readers deserve to discover him for themselves.
As in his other comic-horror novels Strand establishes his plots early and then masterfully moves characters through incident after incident, each more outrageous than the last. In Wolf Hunt, there was a werewolf in a cage in a van; in Wolf Hunt 2, a werewolf, several humans, and one indeterminate, all in the same cage at the same time. One scene includes a life-or-death version of “urban surfing” from the film Teen Wolf; another describes, in great, gruesome, and gory detail, one of the most ingenious and ridiculous ways yet of killing a werewolf—all that is needed is an aluminum baseball bat; a score or so bits of silver goth jewelry, the sharper the better; super-glue; and a children’s slide.
There is blood-letting aplenty, some purposefully repulsive, some necessary. The bad guys lose in appropriate ways; but the good guys (relatively speaking) are not immune to harm. By the end, rough justice has been served, Ally is safe (perhaps), and the stage—as noted in “About the Author”—may or may not be set for Wolf Hunt 3, Wolf Hunt 4, Wolf Hunt 5, Wolf Hunt 6, or Wolf Hunt: All-Vampire Edition.
Any of which would be welcome.
