Plot or Premise

Sara Flores is living off the grid after a divorce, and gets to know an Indigenous neighbour who teaches her about wilderness and remote living. He seems like a pretty good friend until he performs a ritual one night as he’s dying and turns her into a werewolf without any warning or information.

What I Liked

The collection of eight shortstories gives the backstory of how Sara actually became a werewolf (no, she wasn’t bitten) and started figuring out how to use her newfound “gift” to help others.

I really liked “The Too-Smart Kid” who tried to get a job with some people who worked at a factory, only to accidentally trip over a drug operation. The “Werewolf at the Zoo” added some decent mythology to the story, with her communicating with a wolf. Similarly, “Werewolf Seeks Lupiti Wisdom” showed some of the backstory for the original werewolf and his links to his tribe.

The short novella, “Curiosity Kills”, was relatively fully fleshed out and had all the elements for a more fulsome story (her being “hired”, her getting involved, and her solving the case aggressively).

What I Didn’t Like

I felt the first story, “What Are Friends For”, was good but way too short. I would have liked to know more about her and Joe before the “hey-now-you’re-a-werewolf” moment, without those actual words telling her anything. But “A Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing” (running in the woods) and Choices (psycho friend of a friend) are not even really stories, just short vignettes with some extra exposition. Finally, there is a pretty good basis for a longer story in “Why I Need To Stay Away from Texas”, but it ends really abruptly and very oddly, where she suddenly has almost ninja / special forces abilities, but continues to talk about her not having any actual training. It didn’t quite work for me.

The Bottom Line

A decent premise and a good origin story

Plot or Premise

A college student drives off suddenly into the night, never to be seen again, while her car is found abandoned at the side of the road. Did she meet someone? Walk off into the woods? Commit suicide?

What I Liked

The main part is Jason Wade, a reporter who starts to link her disappearance to a broader storyline and a psycho who preys on women. The story jumps around a bit, with him as a newbie reporter trying to win a coveted full reporter job, and it backfires on him. Then he pursues it further, at potential further cost to him.

What I Didn’t Like

There are a couple of “complications” as plot devices that don’t work for me. The boyfriend has some info that he holds back that would help improve the search, or at least inform the search, and while the reasons are explained, they’re not very believable. And the ending is a bit stretched with poor cell service and heroic efforts by individuals. Didn’t really work for me.

The Bottom Line

Only mildly thriller-ish

Plot or Premise

A Manhattan psychiatrist is working late, and then becomes the late psychiatrist when someone visits, attacks, kills and then mutilates the doctor. No leads in the case leads to Delaney being asked to investigate.

What I Liked

Sanders seems to like to alternate between revealing the murderer early or keeping it a secret. In this one, it is a secret. In addition to family and friends, there are four patients who could be the killer. All with unique personalities; all with unique issues. And they all have to be checked out with different approaches.

What I Didn’t Like

With the four suspects, there is a LOT of space devoted to figuring out how to get close to them, worm out their secrets, knowing that at least two or three are going to be completely uninvolved and the investigations of them are just red herrings. I also figured out who the killer was really early on, perhaps 15% of the way into the book, and it was a LONG slog to get to the end.

The Bottom Line

The killer is obvious as is the motive, but it takes a long time to get there