Return of the Werewolf

GUY N SMITH
Return of the Werewolf

New English Library, London, 1977
price: 55p; 112 pages

dedication: To John Ford - for a lot of reasons

The blurb on the back:

The werewolf that had scourged the Black Hill was long since dead. The villagers who lived nearby no longer listened on nights of the full moon for its chilling howl, no longer had need to bar and lock their doors against the supernatural strength of the half-man, half-beast.
Until the grave of the werewolf was found ripped open, despoiled, and the body gone! Gordon Hall, who had hunted the creature before, returned from London, but too late. Already mutilated sheep had been found, and a man attacked.
Had the werewolf returned - or was some other ravening menace loose on the hills?

opening lines:
The hill mist which had been gathering steadily all day began to thicken with the coming of night. It drifted down the fir covered slopes mingling with the darkness, bringing with it a dampness which was only too familiar to this desolate range of Shropshire/Welsh border hills.

Early on in his career, before he really got into his sideways stride with the crabs, Guy N Smith knocked out a few werewolf novels set on the Welsh border. This is one of those, and as the sleeve notes indicate, it's the same as the last one.

I guess there are some readers who cherish Smith's work and have followed his progress through the decades with growing anticipation and satisfaction. But I'm not one of them. To my mind - and my apologies for my rudeness - he remains one of the most unreadable authors ever to have produced the best part of a hundred books in recent times. It's the horror equivalent of The Bill: competent, workmanlike and deeply uninspired.

ARTISTIC MERIT: 1/5
ENTERTAINMENT VALUE: 1/5
HIPNESS QUOTIENT: 2/5

visit the official Guy N Smith website

from the maker of...

Crabs on the Rampage

horror

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