Sunday, October 11, 2020
Sunday's Short Stack: Lonewolf by JL Merrow
Sex with a stranger can be riskier than you know… particularly if that stranger turns out to be a werewolf. A companion to — or appetiser for — my novel Camwolf.
Two years ago a casual encounter in Stuttgart left Carl changed forever. He thought he could handle being a werewolf—until he passed the curse on to his English lover, Nick Sewell.
Now Carl's come back to Germany to look for answers from the man who made him a monster. But Stefan's disappeared, and in his place Carl finds Christian, who may have as much to hide as Carl does—or even more.
This is a short story in the same universe as Camwolf, but with different main characters. If you've read the novel you may recall that Nick Sewell was turned into a werewolf three years before the start of Camwolf by his then lover, Carl Fisher. This is Carl's story, and it's a dark little tale.
Lonewolf is a companion piece to the author's Camwolf, having not yet read Camwolf, I was hesitant to read this unsure if Lonewolf would effect the novel but having gotten the rec from a FB M/M book rec group, I was told it wouldn't so I went ahead. So glad I did. Lonewolf is a short intriguing look at how one man becomes a wolf and the anguish he feels when he himself turns Nick(the main character from Camwolf). There really is quite a bit packed into this short story, though it may seem a bit disjointed at times I can't help but wonder if the author didn't intend that to help the reader connect with Carl's emotional state dealing with being a wolf. Wonderful little gem that entertained and definitely intrigued me to add Nick's story, Camwolf to my TBR List.
RATING:
Carl’s enquiries at Ingolfs, the dingy bar on the edge of Stuttgart’s Altstadt, had got him nowhere. No one could remember seeing Stefan for well over a year—or at least, no one was willing to admit to it. The barman had known something. He’d looked at Carl with narrowed eyes and flared nostrils, and smirked when he’d mentioned Stefan. As if the man could see inside him, see the beast barely contained within.
Carl downed the dregs of his Weissbier and slammed the glass back down on the scarred oak table. Time to go home. Or what passed for it while he was chasing ghosts here in Stuttgart. His jaw tightened. ‘Home’ was a meaningless concept anyway these days. Leaving the bar, he turned his steps south, towards the river, and stopped to look out upon the lights of the city reflected in its inky waters. He’d once thought Stuttgart beautiful, and no doubt it still was—to anyone whose memories of the city weren’t tainted by violence and horror.
He should never have left Germany—not without getting the answers he’d come back here, two years later, to seek. But at the time... At the time, all he’d wanted was to get away. Away from this place with its nightmares-made-flesh. Away from the lover who’d proved to be a monster.
Away from the terror that he’d become one himself.
Sometimes, though, there’s just nowhere far enough to run.
JL Merrow is that rare beast, an English person who refuses to drink tea. She read Natural Sciences at Cambridge, where she learned many things, chief amongst which was that she never wanted to see the inside of a lab ever again. Her one regret is that she never mastered the ability of punting one-handed whilst holding a glass of champagne.
She writes (mostly) contemporary gay romance and mysteries, and is frequently accused of humour. Her novel Slam! won the 2013 Rainbow Award for Best LGBT Romantic Comedy, and several of her books have been EPIC Awards finalists, including Muscling Through, Relief Valve (the Plumber's Mate Mysteries) and To Love a Traitor.
JL Merrow is a member of the Romantic Novelists' Association, International Thriller Writers, Verulam Writers and the UK GLBTQ Fiction Meet organising team.
B&N / KOBO / SMASHWORDS
EMAIL: jl.merrow@gmail.com
Lonewolf
KOBO / iTUNES / GOODREADS TBR
Camwolf
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