Michael Gallatin, a werewolf, first showed up in The Wolf’s Hour, a 1989 World War II horror novel by American writer Robert R. McCammon. The British secret agent is sent behind German lines to stop a secret weapon from being launched against the Allies. The fact that the British agent is a werewolf spices up the dangerous mission.
In 2011, Subterranean Press published The Hunter From the Woods, a collection of stories about Gallanin including “The Great White Way,” Gallatin’s origin story. You might wonder why a werewolf would agree to become a British secret agent and risk his life fighting the Nazis. McCammon provides a suitable rationale. He also creates a sympathetic werewolf who takes a lot of punishment in his missions against the Third Reich.
My favorite story in The Hunter From the Woods is “Sea Chase” where Gallatin’s mission is to protect a German arms expert and his family who are defecting while the tramp freighter they’re on is pursed by an armed German ship. I loved the desperate crossing across the English Channel with the German ship closing in for the kill. Very suspenseful!
“The Wolf and the Eagle,” with its horrific scenes of survival in the desert, and “The Room at the Bottom of the Stairs,” where Gallanin falls in love with a beautiful Nazi journalist, show the range of McCammon’s story-telling. AMAZON offers this Subterranean edition for $80. But, your local Library might have a copy. GRADE: B+
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
The great white way — 11
The man from London — 23
Sea chase — 41
The wolf and the eagle — 135
The room at bottom of the stairs — 201
Death of a hunter — 315