0
0
Pages: 66
Goes well with: all-day breakfast, with lots of whipped cream on those pancakes
Vampires are popular these days, and werewolves follow close behind. But there are as many different kinds of werewolves in the world of books as there are vampires. The werewolves of Melody Knight and N.D. Hansen-Hill’s little book, Dink, are the truly delightful kind.
Take Jot. He’s a werewolf who, after a long night of “wolfing” around, is famished. So his human self heads down to the local greasy spoon, where he wolfs down lots of food. Jot is sweet and funny, but he’s terribly embarrassed about his little eating problem. But what got me hooked and eager to turn the pages was that, as a werewolf, he’s fallen in love with a Chihuahua.
Poor lovelorn Jot eventually meets werewolf expert Polly Merriworth, who’s been called in to help Inspector Symonds investigate a spate of suspicious killings, perpetrated by what could be a werewolf. So the scene is set.
Jot and Polly team up, in every sense of the word, and their loving is well worth the wait. Meanwhile, the food’s well worth savoring, too, as werewolves stuff their faces and clean up extraneous hair after animal nights.
Eventually, the adventurous couple even catches the killer, giving the story its delightfully satisfying conclusion.
The authors of Dink set up their characters, locale, and dilemma with gentle humor and up-to-date concerns. Wiccans fear exposure. The media threatens over-reaction. And the werewolf hangs his head out of a taxicab window, just like a dog.
This curious take on werewolf lore enjoys an amusing twist in its tail, avoids excessive gruesomeness, and should go well with coffee and lunch any day.
