Prowlers by Christopher Golden
01/11/2002 . Source: Jacqueline Kirk 
Pub: Pocket Books/Simon and Schuster. 288 page paperback. Price: £ 6.99 (UK). ISBN: 0-7434-4014-5. Buy from Amazon US - Buy from Amazon UK
nb: US titles may only be available from Amazon US, and UK titles from Amazon UK. Check out websites: www.simonsays.co.uk
and www.christophergolden.com
Jack Dwyer runs a pub along with his sister
in downtown Boston. After a night out with friends, two of them
are brutally slaughtered. Jack and his best friend's girlfriend,
Molly, are shell-shocked by the murders of their friends.
After Artie's funeral, Jack returns to the pub late at night to
find the ghost of his friend waiting for him. Artie explains he
is in the Ghostlands and can't move on until people know the truth
about his death. He tells Jack about the Prowlers. Creatures similar
to the werewolves of myth but they are not human in any way.
Although they have adapted and can appear human so as to pass unnoticed
in the cities and towns where they hunt. Normally they are scattered,
living in packs of one or two but a large pack led by Tanzer, has
moved to Boston. Tanzer wants to unite all the Prowlers into one
pack and goes from city to city gathering more Prowlers together.
At first, Jack doesn't believe in them but when Artie shows him
some Prowlers feeding off humans they have just killed he has no
choice but to believe him. Unfortunately, the Prowlers catch his
scent and realise that Jack knows about them. When he takes Molly
to the cinema Artie appears and warns him that they are being hunted.
They escape and the police kill the Prowlers but the whole incident
is covered up. Jack and Molly realise that the police know about
them but do nothing, persuading people that they are runaway wolves.
Jack and Molly are still in danger from the rest of the pack and
the battle is brought to their doorstep. Then they find that the
person they least suspected and treated like family is in fact a
Prowler.
Golden has an easy style and this book was read in a couple of
nights. The Prowlers are a great creation obviously taken from werewolves
but given a very bestial slant. Where werewolves are human part
of the time, Prowlers are beast all the time and have to concentrate
to keep their human appearance. The action is violent and very bloody
with lots of throats ripped out and limbs torn off!
Tanzer is particularly menacing as the pack leader, never completely
hiding his bestial nature. I was eagerly awaiting a showdown between
the unsuspected Prowler in their midst and Tanzer but alas was disappointed!
Although the Ghostlands with all the restless souls was a good
idea it was just a bit convenient that Jack's murdered friend came
back to tell him all about the Prowlers and where to find them!
But all in all and enjoyable book. Not brain fodder by any means
but something to read when there's only crap on the telly!
Jacqueline Kirk
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