GHOSTLY ROULETTE

A werewolf detective runs up against more fellow supernatural beings than he’d bargained for in this installment of Carpenter’s series.

Iowa-based Joe Butler is ready for a vacation. Peter, a member of his werewolf pack, invites him on a trip to his family’s cabin on a Minnesota lake. Joe is introduced to Peter’s younger brother Parker, who is an amateur ghost hunter. They tag along with Parker’s team of paranormal investigators to a local hotel, where they encounter an angry ghost; shortly afterward, Parker is murdered. The local pack, and the deputy who is officially in charge of investigating Parker’s murder, don’t make much of an effort to investigate. Peter gets called back to Iowa by the pack leader, but Joe volunteers to stay to find Parker’s killer. Because of how the murder was committed, vampires, not ghosts, become the primary suspects (“Vampires can transform into bats and clouds of mist as well as exert control over electronic devices”). Joe struggles to find anyone with a motive to kill Parker; he soon learns that the Minnesota woods are full of supernatural creatures working in opposition to each other, and that Parker may have been collateral damage. Joe gets help from an unexpected source: Parker’s ghost appears to him, explaining that recently minted spirits can’t cross over, and that more ghosts are being forced to return from the other side. Joe must determine who is behind this situation and Parker’s murder. Carpenter has fashioned this second volume of his Joe the Werewolf series into an educational outing for his lead character that will prove equally compelling to his readers. In addition to the were-beasts, aliens, and vampires with which he’s familiar, Joe here encounters sasquatches, ghosts, and hodags (evil creatures that spring from the ashes of cremated oxen). The revelation that so many exotic beings are living among humans is what makes Carpenter’s work fun—readers will be engaged while encountering various supernatural creatures along with Joe, who gets roped into the role of peacemaker trying to get the various groups to work together against a common threat.

This dogged sleuth will need time off to recover from this exhausting but enjoyable novel.