Stalking the Werewolf

Devil in the Countryside by Cory Barclay
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

If you are looking for the devil in these pages of historical fiction you won’t find him. What you will find is people acting on base instincts. After all it is people who make the worst monsters.

Set in Germany in the town of Bedburhg there is growing tension between to religious communities. Germany was beset by a civil war between the Catholics and the Lutherans . This civil war lasted from around 1866 to the 1880’s . It was a time when both communities were hounding each other and hurling accusation of satanism and the practice of witchcraft. Some were even accused of being a werewolf. This lead to persecution and unfair imprisonment.

Bed burg had been terrorized by a so called werewolf for decades. The murder of a local girl named Dorothea prompts an investigation. Hans, an investigator goes their to find the werewolf or the killer depending on who that might be. Upon finding the body our investigators question a local farmer named Achterberg about things. The investigation leads to him investigating several farming families and what uncovers is a very complicated web of intrigue

There are broken promises of marriage, false accusations and suspicions. The catholics run the country and it is a crime to be a Protestant. Many Protestant hide under the guise of being Catholic to avoid persecution. Fathers sell their daughters up for personal gain and political ambition. Clergy men engage in the worst of crimes and heinous behavior.

Then there is the mystery of who is the werewolf. The body count racks up. It is mostly Protestant who are disguised as Ca holiest who end up dead. Hans meets a hunter named George who helps kill a wolf and assisted in the investigation. In the end we do not really know who the werewolf really is or even if he exists. Read the end carefully though and I may give you a clue.

View all my reviews