Shapeshifter
XC Publishing (www.xcpublishing.com)
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REVIEW BY WILLIAM D. GAGLIANI
Sometimes you want to sink your teeth into an old-fashioned, escapist adventure and read for the sheer enjoyment of riding the wave of an exciting story. Escapism for its own sake is a noble enterprise--it's what most of us want at the movies and in our pleasure reading. Horror author J.F. Gonzalez knows that and delivers a quick but satisfying reading experience in Shapeshifter. The action follows Mark Wiseman, a young man cursed by lycanthropy, a condition that causes him to morph into a werewolf. Caught shapeshifting into a werewolf on security videotape, Mark is being blackmailed by Bernard Roberts, the CEO of a huge insurance company. Bernard wants Mark to murder the board members who are supporting a merger--a deal that will expose Bernard's embezzling ways. With his shapeshifting secret in the hands of his blackmailer, Mark has little recourse, especially since Bernard can tie Mark to his own parents' murder. But Bernard doesn't foresee one development: Mark's sudden romance with the CEO's executive secretary. Threads ravel and unravel as Mark reluctantly uses his beast side to carry out Bernard's evil intentions--until one attempted murder goes badly awry. Uncluttered prose propels the plot along at breakneck speed, and there are no side roads or detours on this slick highway. Sometimes more like an outline of a novel than a novel, Shapeshifter barrels along in fine pulp fiction, B-movie fashion, never letting its basic style get in the way of the action. Indeed, Gonzalez (co-author of Clickers, from DarkTales Press) is at his best when describing gory action. Though mostly of the stock variety, the characters go through the paces with appropriate panache. The ending comes at the reader like a careening truck, and an unexpected epilogue ties everything neatly together. While lacking some of the editorial polish of a hardcover book, Shapeshifter nevertheless delivers a good horror punch right between the eyes. Bill Gagliani is the author of Shadowplays, an e-book collection of dark fiction from Ebooksonthe.net.
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