Ferocity

Stephen Laws does it again, it' been a long wait for another of his novels, but worth it.This one is set on the Northumberland moors where it seems a "big cat" could be stalking the livestock. It's only a matter of time before it gets a human victim! There have always been rumours of sightings of large cats on the moors of the U.K. and Scotland. Stephen Laws goes for the jugular here and creates a believable novel of thrills and tension.the story centres on Cath Lane and her daughter who live on the lonely. windswept moors, also living not so far away is Drew Hall, a lonely guy who thrives on the bleak life on the moors. These two lonely individuals are bought together to face up to the possibilty of these big cats. More than that is about to descend into their secluded world. Three desperate criminals are about to change their lives forever. This is a well written novel with great characters you actually find yourself caring about. That is always the case with Mr. Laws , he creates characters you can grow to admire and perhaps on ocassion identify with. At the same time his three villains jump off the page and are truly terrifying. Grab a good read, you won't be able to put this one down.

Cath and her daughter have just moved out to the country, after Cath's husband was horribly murdered. In the countryside, Cath hopes to escape her grief and pain, to write her novels in solitude. Her new neighbor, Drew, is also recovering from a spouse's horrible death. Drew was once a successful farmer; after his wife died, he left all that behind. The only thing that keeps him going now is his new hobby: trying to prove the existence of the Big Cats. For Drew has seem them: black as a panther, yet bigger and more ferocious. Their camoflage abilities are almost supernatural; their scent is musky and dense. They are out there, hiding, waiting, biding their time; but now a violent storm is coming, along with violent humans, and the Big Cats and humans will come face-to-face... "Ferocity" was surprisingly good. Normally, horror novels of this nature tend to be paint-by-numbers efforts; fortunately, Stephen Laws is a capable writer, who turns a cliched (but interesting) story into a wonderful (and still interesting) novel. The characters (human and demonic feline) are deep and believable; the atmosphere, especially during the final hundred pages, is tense and almost unbearable. This novel isn't flat-out scary, but it IS entertaining, and provides an excellent tale to keep you awake at night.

"Ferocity" is a fun thrill-ride; I wouldn't even call it horror, because there aren't really many aspects of horror - I honestly don't consider wild animals acting like wild animals DO to be horrific, but that's just me! Whomever wrote the description on the back of the book got it ALL wrong, so don't go by what it says. Here's the essential plot in a nutshell: Cath and Drew are neighbors who haven't met. Both had spouses killed in tragic accidents - Cath's husband was stabbed while they were visiting New York to celebrate her first book being made into a movie and Drew's wife fell into a harvesting combine when the brake that was holding it on the hill vibrated free and it started moving. One night, while Drew is driving home, a reckless driver runs him off the road in front of Cath's house. Cath's housekeeper - Fay - who also taught Drew while he was in school, comes out and hauls him into the house. When Fay roaps them both into giving a talk about their personal specialities - Cath is a novelist (one of the few things the description on the cover did right) and Drew has been tracking the Big Cats of the Northumberland Fells for several years. Many people believe the Big Cats to be a myth, but the farmers who are losing livestock are not amused. Drew has actually had an upclose & personal with one of them and he recalls them as being much larger than the panther they resemble and having some way of remaining unseen, even in areas in which they should be readily visible. After the talk they all go out to dinner and of course Drew and Cath hit it off. A few days later Drew calls Cath over to announce he has hit a Big Cat with a tranquilizer dart but when they go to check on it, it has somehow escaped; leaving being a spitting, clawing cub that itself is two feet long and a foot high, even though it is only 3 months old. It unfortunately gets itself caught in the net that Drew had put up to keep the older one in and while they are trying to extricate the little one, the big one attacks. When they are forced to shoot the big one again - in the mouth - to save their lives, Drew is horribly afraid they might have given it an overdose, so they haul it home, putting it into a cage that Drew built over the years. A major storm is rising - one that no one has been able to forecast, which has happened increasingly over the past few years - and the two are overcome with passion, coming to themselves just in time to hear the Big Cat die, which upsets Drew, as he never meant to hurt him. Add murderous drug runners into the mix, who take Cath and Drew hostage after Cath rescues them from a car accident of their own, and the momma Big Cat, who comes looking for her mate in the middle of the storm, and this book, especially the last half of it, is quite a page turner. I admit I would have preferred this to be more in English-speak rather than Americanized, but it was still a terrific book and Stephen Laws knows, like no other, how to spin an e

After writer Cath Lane's husband was killed by a mugger in New York City, she moves with her daughter Rynne to a rural town in the Northumberland Moors. Although two years have passed, Cath still grieves and hasn't written a book since the mugging. Drew Hall, the owner of Fell Farm is their nearest neighbor and is also mourning for his wife who was killed when she fell into their shredder. They meet when Drew is in a near accident by Cath's home. Her housekeeper Faye assures Cath that Drew is a wonderful person. When they both give a talk at the meeting hall, Drew and Cath find they like each other. One day Drew calls her to come up to the farm because he wants to tell her something. There are Big Cats on his land, panther looking with a demonic face and he has spent the last two years hunting them because they have some unknown way of camouflaging themselves that makes them impossible to catch. They accidentally kill one of the creatures, capture another and put both in a cage but the dead one's mate is coming. While they are dealing with that problem, they are taken hostage by three killers who have stolen drugs from a businessman in town. The storm keeps them trapped in the house with a monster coming for them and it will be a miracle if any of them make it out alive. FEROCITY is part horror, part thriller and a totally entertaining work reminiscent of THE FLOCK by James Robert Smith. There is plenty of action on different fronts, the big cats, the kidnappers, and the storm but it is the characters who make this book a cut above the average horror thriller. The protagonists are likeable and will go to the wall for each other and Cath's daughter. Though over the top, this is definitely a one sitting reading experience. Harriet Klausner