Ann Bench

The Hunter from the Woods marks the much-anticipated return of Michael Gallatin, the lycanthropic hero of Robert McCammon’s 1989 classic, The Wolf’s Hour. These all-new, interlinked stories offer a full measure of McCammon’s trademark narrative excitement, and comprise a fascinating composite portrait of a unique fictional creation.

Michael Gallatin is a British spy with a peculiar talent: the ability to transform himself into a wolf. Although his work in North Africa helped the Allies win the continent in the early days of World War II, he quit the service when a German spy shot his lover in her bed. Now, three years later, the army asks him to end his retirement and parachute into occupied Paris. A mysterious German plan called the Iron Fist threatens the D-Day invasion, and the Nazi in charge is the spy who betrayed Michael’s lover. The werewolf goes to France for king and country, hoping for a chance at bloody vengeance.

Marti Greenwood has just moved into a brand-new home after a bitter divorce from her husband Emery, and while she’s still not quite done with him - of course, some of her most cherished possessions are nowhere to be found once she unpacks her things - a fresh start in a beautiful LA neighborhood is exactly what she needs. But days after her arrival, Marti is attacked in her home. She's found shaken and beaten, and her neighbors who immediately call the police. She never saw the face of her attacker, and so there is little to go on as detectives open an investigation.

After years of self-imposed exile, Christy McCauley returns to West Virginia, only to discover that it has become the hunting grounds for a savage beast stalking the hollows of rural Augusta County beneath the light of the full moon. Authorities are baffled as the unknown creature grows ever bolder and the slaughter, more horrific. When Christy finds herself caught in the path of the beast’s rampage, she must decide: flee her home to save her own life, or stand her ground and with the help of her friends, hunt down the predator, and destroy it before it kills again.

In Buck Lake, Colorado, the resident dog catcher, Collins, is on the verge of retirement. But something strange lurks in the woods, about to ruin his plans.... After 30 years, Collins is ready to be done with small-town animal control. His replacement, Blair, is a Gen Z vet student who hates mansplaining; they don’t get along. But on the eve of his retirement, Collins gets a call that changes everything. There’s been a report of a vicious wild dog on the loose.

When Corey Westmoreland runs into the one woman he let get away over 30 years ago, he is determined to keep Abby Winters within his reach. Even if it means taking her up to his mountain. And once he realizes their attraction is still explosive after all this time, he’s determined to convince her that it’s not too late for them and that their past and present have now collided for a reason. It was always meant for Corey’s Mountain to be their home.