Murcheston: The Wolf's Tale

Shrouded within the dark corners of imagination, the werewolf holds a supreme place in fable and folklore-the nightbeast, stalking its prey under the light of a full moon. Such is the popular conception. But what of the beast himself? In the novel The Wolf's Tale, a werewolf documents his own case of lycanthropy. Amid the gothic backdrop of Victorian London, the author presents three gentlemen and one woman as they share the telling of this tale-the tale of Edgar Lenoir, Duke of Darnley: aristocrat and werewolf.

When Lord Darnley learns that Elizabeth is pregnant with Merry's baby, he plans a hunt in the Carpathian Mountains to escape the pain of his unrequited love. Darnely goes alone and returns a changed man . . . a man who will then change Merry's and Elizabeth's lives forever.

The centerpiece of the novel is Lord Darnley's journal chronicling his months as a werewolf. He views his condition not with horror, but with a fascination he believes to be thoroughly modern. Unfortunately, he is also narcissistic, ruthless, and ultimately, seduced by his own misguided self-interest to justify as natural and healthy the bestial desires that eventually consume him.