Bitten-Dan O’Brien

Bitten
Dan O’Brien
iUniverse, Sep 16 2010, $17.95
ISBN: 9781450258470

FBI Agent Lauren Westlake traveled to the small northern Minnesota town of Locke on a working woman’s vacation. A recent death occurred nearby that defies logic as the mutilated body had the skin ripped off. The insane beast that committed the murder takes the skin back to a shack in the frozen woods and sews it onto his epidermis.

The Fed is not the only stranger in ton. Lauren meets Dominic at a bar and for the first time in what she thinks is forever she is attracted to someone. However, the case remains her top priority as more deaths have townsfolk up in arms. She meets Maude, a woman in a cottage in the woods, who gives Lauren a magical brew. The elixir opens her eyes into the past and she learns she deals with two males: a madman who wants to be a werewolf and a werewolf who wants to be a man. She must identify both to determine who the werewolf is and whether the “beast” is the psychopathic serial killer.

Dan O’Brien has written a chilling thriller that takes a unique spin on the werewolf legend. Lauren is a strong person who is also a resolute good law enforcement official. She may be a stranger, but she makes a difference in Locke because without her the situation would be much worse because no one can accept the evidence as it is outside of their logic’s comfort zone. Armchair readers will brave the frozen Northern Minnesota woods to learn who the title character of aptly named Bitten is.

Harriet Klausner