A sort of alt-horror novel where the good guy is a British agent dropped behind enemy lines in World War II in order to get some info under the nose of the Gestapo. He's good looking, smart and has a knack for survival. He is also a werewolf. At the pinnacle of his acclaim as a horror writer McCammon decided to branch out into other more difficult to categorise areas.
Noted progenitor of the 'steampunk' sub-genre, the ingenious Tim Powers likes to saturate his books with real history and fill in the gaps with supernatural elements. Although ostensibly the first in the Fault Lines series, Last Call works well as a stand-alone. Set in Las Vegas, a poker-playing gambler tries to win his soul with a deck of supernatural tarot cards. Unusual magical realist novel.
Guilty Pleasures by Laurell K Hamilton (1993)
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St. Louis is crawling with vampires, and if one gets out of line the city calls on fully-certified Executioner Anita Blake. An expert in the supernatural and a qualified necromancer, she also keeps exhaustively busy raising Zombies. The series kicks off with Blake doing some hazardous work for the Master vamp and investigating a string of vampire deaths. Fun stuff… wanted dead or alive.
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman (1997)
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The master of fantasy comic-book novels shows he is also a more than capable writer of full-length narratives. Richard Mayhew's very existence is turned upside-down and he ends up in the shadowy world of London Below. Full of dark humour and a host of fantasy in-jokes, Gaiman is definitely worth keeping an eye on. Made into a BBC television miniseries.
Blood and Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klause (1997)
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When teenager Vivian Gandillon falls for a really nice guy at school her hormones go into top gear… which isn't always a good thing for a werewolf. The problem at hand is reconciling running with the pack with her strong attraction to a "meat-boy". Not exactly an original premise, but teenage girls exploring their sensuality will no doubt lap this one up without paws.
Bitten [S1] by Kelley Armstrong (2001)
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Yet another popular urban supernatural fantasy, this time about a young woman who tries to reconcile her lycanthropic tendencies and lead a normal life while having a nice straightforward romantic relationship. The werewolf in her proves hard to tame when she rejoins the pack to track down some rogue 'mutts'. Well written and some nice romantic touches if you like this sort of stuff.
Dead Witch Walking by Kim Harrison (2004)
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The title of each book in Harrison's Rachel Morgan series is based on a Clint Eastwood movie. With half of humanity wiped out by genetically modified tomatoes all the vamps, werewolves, and so on have come out of the closet. Morgan is a crook-catching witch with Inderland Runner Services. With a contract on her head she teams up with a vampire to try and clear her name.
Moon Called [S1] by Patricia Briggs (2006)
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Briggs' Mercy Thompson series kicked off with this story about a young woman from a Native American fae lineage that allows her to shape-shift into a coyote. The spunky Mercy runs her own garage. The action takes off when a teenager she senses is a werewolf shows up looking for work. Another in the wave of urban supernatural fantasies featuring vampires, werewolves and other fae.
