Number 29 - The Changing - FW Armstrong

 

FW Armstrong is a pseudonym for the usually very reliable TM Wright. I was very excited to find he'd written under another name and that those books were available online for semi-reasonable prices.

And check out that cover! If that doesn't scrwam 80s horror novel, what does?

Sadly, If I hadn't knowwn this was TM Wright, I would never have guessed from the writing.  This is easily the least good thing I've read by him.

The plot involves, as you can probably guess, werewolves. A recurring character of Wright's - Ryerson Biergarten - makes his first appearance in this book. he's a psychic investigator, helping a cop friend investigate what appears to be the work of a werewolf, tearing employees at the Kodak city to shreds.

We're given a number of suspects who all have their own reasons for believing they might be the werewolf and all is revealed in due course. It does feel like he just rolled a dice to decide who it was though.

I spent most of this book assuming that this was the first thing he wrote, and that would account for the slump in the quality of the writing - which only shows the briefest glimpses of his usual genius.

However, on checking the dates, this was published the year AFTER A Manhattan Ghost Story, which is one of my all time favourite books and is one of the 10 books that consistently occupies the top three slots. I find myself hoping that this was one from the slush pile that he gave to Tor and it actually predates the time he found his writing mojo.

The plotting also seems quite lazy. Wright doesn't always bother to make too much sense, but the books normally hold together better than this. A story about investigating supernatural killings should be a lot tighter than this is. The shock scenes don't shock, and there are times where it just feels a bit silly. 

And where's the atmosphere? Wright's writing normally creates a full time sense of unease.  That's missing here among unconvincing stock characters with bad dialogue. 

The most effective sequences are the side plot that barely touches on the main story.

This sounds like I hated the book.  I didn't. I raced through it in two days. It's as easy to read as anything else he's written.  It's just missing that dark twisted heart that I associate with his writing.

I wish I could give this more than a 5/10.