Set against a brilliant panorama of European expansion into the West in the late 1800s, Moon Dance is the horrifying tale of the illegitimate son of the Count von Bachl-Wolfling, leader of a pack of Viennese werewolves, and of the boy's all-too-human governess, Speranza. The pack has decided to emigrate to America, in search of wild lands and unsuspicious human prey. But unbeknownst to them, the Dakota territory is already home to the Shungmanitu--a clan of the Lakota Sioux who become wolves by the light of the full moon. From Publishers WeeklyWhen young Carrie DuPre travels from Berkeley, Calif., to the South Dakota Badlands to search out the true story of the Laramie Ripper--a mass-murderer reputed to have killed his victims by evisceration--she gets a lot more than she (and perhaps the reader) bargains for. The secrets she discovers connect Austro-Hungarian werewolf immigration and 100 years of Native American wolf-worship, and will change her life forever. In her investigation of the showdown between shaman and werewolf, Carrie is joined by Preston Bluefeather Grumiaux, her old high school flame, who now works as a part-time tribal policeman and also at the Szymanowski Institute, which happens to be the present home of the Laramie Ripper. Flashing between the present, the early 1960s and the late 1880s … Somtov's ( Vampire Junction ) novel offers a complex horror experience, rich in atmosphere and history--not to mention animal sexuality and a great deal of gore. From Library JournalSet in 1880s Dakota Territory, this horror tale of the American West pits European werewolves against Native American werewolves in a war of extermination. Johnny Kindred, schizophrenic and werewolf, is the focal character. An old man-creature in the 1960s, Kindred, institutionalized and almost forgotten by the outside world, recalls in meticulous detail the great werewolf battles of his youth. This is a big novel with dozens of characters, a multitude of subplots, and a great deal of bloodletting. Interesting characters (human/werewolf) plus a strong sense of the Old West contribute to the tale's dark fascination. By the author of Starship & Haiku and Vampire Junction , this should prove good reading for horror fans. Highly recommended for popular fiction collections.
