Nathan Slaughter, a hard-edged, burned-out cop from Detroit, has been the Chief of Police in Potter's Field, Wyoming, ever since he was shot in a liqour store robbery. Fleeing from a nervous breakdown and the insecurity that followed, Slaughter fails at raising horses in the mountain town and then accepts the Chief job, more to compensate for his own fears than anything else. His job leaves him mostly chasing down the town drunk and dogs that bark all night. But then ranchers began to find their cattle killed and mutilated and a young boy, bitten by a raccon, vicisouly attacks his mother, biting and ripping at her throat like a wild animal. Theese unusual crimes bear an unusual connection to a 1960's hippie commune, long thought defunct. Slaughter must learn the connection before the town boils over into mayhem with the townspeople either quickly going mad or bent on murder.

Slaughter (another winner for best character name ever used) is driven by the need to control himself and his surroundings. His fear of failure and insecurity disgust him so thoroughly that he often over reacts, puffing out and over compensating for the weak behavior. As is usually the case, no one in his circle of friends and colleagues sees any weakness in him; his feelings of weakness are singularly personal. The story is really an examination in the human struggle to gain and maintain control of emotions and fears, with Slaughter as its main subject. Other characters are also afflicted in varying degrees with the same troubles and each deals with them differently and with varied success. The primary character besides Slaughter who faces such demons is Dunlap, another burn-out. Dunlap is a reporter with a serious drinking problem, who is often sent to the bottle of a morning to get through the day. The juxtaposition of Slaughter and Dunlap, their small victories and defeats in the battle to stay in control is the driving force behind the book.

Morrell, typically known for thrillers and espionage, takes on the classic story of the werewolve and gives it a new life, attempting to ascribe a scientific explanation for the origin of the myth. As usual, Morrell gives us characters much more carefully and deeply drawn than is the norm for the horro genre. Indeed, the first publication of the story in 1979 was an abbreviated version of the story Morrell actually wrote. The publisher was unhappy with both the length of the book and the lack of a 'love interest'. Morrell succombed and gave the publishing house what they wanted. In 1991, however, after the novel had gained recognition, he found the orginal manuscript and gave it to a publisher willing to stick with his vision. The result is a true, classic horror story, only better written than most.

The only disappointment, for me,were the last two to three pages. I was happy with the ending, as Morrell gave Slaughter an opportunity to go to extraordinary lengths to gain control. But Morrell opted to put together a ragtag 'family' of sorts for Slaughter, built from the survivors of the final, bloody battle. The group and some of the things Slaughter says in the last few paragraphs seemed inconsistent with the rest of the character's life on the pages. Nonetheless, this is a great book and I'd recommend it to anyone, especially horror fans or Morrell fans who haven't read it yet.

4 bones!!!! ( )

I'm very hard to scare, but the passage where the first "thing" (don't want to give it away) wanders into town sent chills running down my spine and I had to turn on some lights in my house. ( )