Title: The Original’s Return

Author: David Watkins

Release date: June 3rd, 2013

I kind of ended up going into this book backwards. You see, I connected some time ago with Watkins on one of the various social media platforms and grabbed a few of his books.

Recently, I read his outstanding story in ‘Leaders of the Pack: A Werewolf Anthology’ and knew I needed to get to this sooner than later. Being a massive werewolf fan, I was doing myself a disservice by not reading it.

Diving in, I wasn’t sure where this would go, especially from the cover blurb.

What I liked: Meet Jack. Jack goes for a morning run every day. One day, his beloved pooch veers off the trail. Jack searches. Finds the dog who isn’t very happy, and as he attempts to get his companion to come to him… he falls down a massive hole.

From that simple opening, Watkins leads us along a break neck story that weaves between the real world stuff – being a dad, husband etc, and the lycanthrope stuff – farmer down the way has his animals picked off.

Watkins planted some little snippets of humor throughout and when things get bloody you better be wearing some protective clothing.

What I love most about werewolf stories are when they are almost timeless. You get a nod to the yesteryear as well as the present and David ensured that he took the care to craft a story that does just that.

What I didn’t like: While I did love the opening, I wasn’t a big fan of how fast things seemed to blow over at the beginning. I don’t want to spoil it, but the opening, I thought at least, was about to expand massively upon a few things and instead it kind of just happens and we move on.

Why you should buy this: Well, obviously you can never have too many werewolf books, so add this to the pile of fun reads. Otherwise, if you’re looking for a great story with a bit of ‘Dog Soldiers’ feel to it, this’ll be right up your alley.

4/5