Bad Wolf (Bad Wolf Chronicles #1)
Author: Tim McGregor
3.5 out of 5 stars
John Gallagher is a gruff homicide detective who often gets too rough with suspects. Lara Mendes is a careful and thorough detective in sex crimes. Starting to feel burned out, Lara is glad to get the chance to transfer to homicide, until she ends up partnered with Gallagher. Even worse, their first case together involves a woman who seems to have been viciously mauled and eaten by dogs. Assuming she was murdered due to her lack of clothing, the detectives have to figure out the woman’s identity while being on the lookout for a killer using a pack of dogs as his murder weapon. When they find the suspect’s journal at the house he was squatting in, they discover that he believes he’s a werewolf. Soon, they start to wonder if maybe he is.
In general, the writing is great and really draws the reader in. Even the opening sentences show this as the pack of dogs run through the city following a scent. The entire description of the scene was chilling but also enthralling. It’s a great opening that lets readers know what to expect.
Honestly, I started off unsure about the characters, and I’m still a little unsure about them. Gallagher’s a jerk who uses excessive force. Lara is awkward but empathetic. She’s dedicated to her job, but is starting to feel burnt out. Gallagher does get a little more nuanced when we find out he has a daughter who he’s close with. On the other hand, Lara isn’t shown as having much of a life outside of her job. I did like that the few more important side characters were a bit more fleshed out; we find out some of the background and get an idea of their personalities. But back to Lara and Gallagher, one thing that bothered me was the times where they did something without any kind of reason given. The one that sticks out most in my mind is when Lara figures out that the suspect is probably squatting in a former group home. Gallagher tells her they’ll check it out together the next morning, but Lara decides to at least do a drive by of the building. Then she decides to go inside, and the entire way she’s trying to talk herself out of it, but no justification is given in her thoughts for why she goes in alone. What happens at the end of this section is important to the plot, so it feels like the author just wasn’t able to make the buildup to that point make sense.
The main thing that let this book down was the characterization, which is why I’m rating it 3.5 out of 5 stars. However, I did like the plot and the writing, so I would read more just to see where the plot goes. I’m just not invested in the characters themselves, which is a pretty important thing for a book to have.
Price through Amazon Kindle: $0
Link to buy: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004YR8F2A
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