Darker Than You Think

Man finds fun, love and a cure for his alcoholism though lycanthropy. Strictly Will Barbee our 'hero' is a shape changer, able to use his mind to form mental projections that take physical form but are invisible. At the start of the novel, though, he is an alcoholic reporter (is there every a sober one?) He is reporting on his old Professor who with his old student friends is back from Mongolia to announce a startling find. We later find out that he has discovered the root of all evil, the shapechangers, who had previously enslaved mankind before being nearly exterminated.

With the help of a young, beautiful reporter (a redhead, therefore, as per the convention in those days, a mega-hottie) Will finds out he's one of the bad guys or, since he's the hero, the good guys if you happen to be a blood thirsty shape who feels hard done by.

Will goes through the appropriate pangs of psychological torment as he systematically murders his friends in order to impress the hot redhead.

Very dated novel. In thge first few chapters the main character gulps a lot. Outside of Ozzie and Harriet I've never seen a real human being gulp. Of course it would have been much better and more skilfully done if we had not found out he was the baddy until the end, a sort of SF/Horror Roger Ackroyd. But if wishes were horses...

Rating: 2.5/5