As a fan and sometime author of werewolf tales, I am keen to read all the werewolf tales I can find. The Werewolf Manuscript, a novella 115 pages long, tells the tale of a man attempting to find out what happened to a mate of his who disappeared after a series of murders. Wolf hairs were found at the scene. The man acquires the manuscript written by a friend of a friend by the name of Cameron and learns the history of his descent into lycanthropy. He is given the book reluctantly by the parents of the alleged murderer, Cameron.

I found this a rather quick and alas a predictable tale of werewolfism. It does not really break any new ground, which is not necessarily bad, but there are no real surprises in store here. There is no real moment of “Wow I didn't see that coming; that was clever.”

It rather strikes me as reading like a vampire novel that is about werewolves instead. Still it's rather cinematic and would probably easily be turned into a script. There is lots of feeling of sense of scene in this novel that rather makes the setting come alive for the reader.

The author clearly has a future in scriptwriting. His description of the large house on the hill outside the main town makes it clear to the reader that something is just not right therein. The exchanges between Cameron, his (werewolf) sire, and James' girlfriend rather instill the sense of angst between them.

A party of werewolves needed a bit more to explain what the grouping was; the aggressive female just seemed a bit pissed up and not a raging were-bitch. The further revelations of the gangs of werewolves all over the world read more like something from Werewolf: The Apocalypse, the role-playing game, than from a novel.

Quite cleverly this book is available as an e-book on Amazon, which saves you the higher paper cover price. This novella would actually work well in a collection of lycanthropy tales or a large collection of the author's work. It is an enjoyable diversion for an hour or so, and lords knows these days we need one. It’s the perfect short novel for someone who has to do the daily commute on public transport.

This novella could have been quite a read, but is missing an element that makes a werewolf tale a howling good read.