Skin of the Wolf

Cabot’s first supernatural thriller, 2013’s Blood of the Lamb, introduced the Noantri, once normal people transformed centuries ago by a mysterious organism into vampires. The Noantri leadership made a secret pact with the Catholic Church to avoid persecution. In this superior, if still derivative, sequel, Noantri expert and art historian Livia Pietro is disturbed to learn of a savage murder at Sotheby’s Manhattan location that coincides with the theft of a prized wolf mask; even more upsetting is the revelation that a genetic mutation has created the Shifters, Native American werewolves who fear that discovery of their existence will lead to another campaign of eradication targeting their people. Cabot (the pen name of S.J. Rozan and Carlos Dews) takes a light approach (e.g., “Was he really sitting in a New York town house listening to two European vampires accuse an Abenaki Indian of being a werewolf?” a character asks himself), but this may limit readers’ engagement with the mythology. Agent: Steve Axelrod, Axelrod Agency. (July)