Veterinarian Abra Barrow has almost a sixth sense when it comes to animals, but very little sense when it comes to people; and when it comes to men, no sense at all. When Abra's husband, Hunter, comes home from a three-month research trip in Romania, she knows there is a change in him, but it's nothing she can put her finger on...yet. As their marriage begins to flounder, Hunter tells her he's leaving her. He's returning to his family's home town of Northside to "figure things out." Desperate to save her marriage, Abra quits her job and moves with him.

Manhattan to Northside is almost too much of a transition for Abra. The house is isolated and the townspeople wary of outsiders. Abra does have one friend in Northside, a wildlife removal operator named Red. As Hunter pulls away from Abra even more, she begins to depend on Red. A bond grows between the two of them, and though she's still married, she knows Red is the man she's meant to be with.

It's not long before Abra figures out her husband's secret. And not long after that, she figures out Hunter and Red have more in common than she would have thought. Then comes the day when her world really spins out of control -- Abra is changing too. She doesn't know how or why, but she's becoming a creature of dense woods and moonlight. Now she's part of a world that only a short time ago she didn't even believe in. Abra's search for her own identity has just begun.

Sheckley takes her time setting up Abra's world and its inhabitants. The story is character-based with most of the emphasis on how Abra views her world and her reactions when reality, as she knows it, starts to change. The plot explodes in the third act and Sheckley brings it all home as her characters all come together in a final (or is it?) violent confrontation. A werewolf story with some interesting new twists, look for the sequel MOONBURN in May 2009.

Book Summary

SHE KNOWS WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE.

Manhattan veterinarian Abra Barrow has more sense about animals than she has about men. So when her adored journalist husband returns from a research trip to Romania and starts pacing their apartment like a caged wolf, Abra agrees to move with him to a rural mansion upstate in order to save her marriage.

But while there are perks to her new life, particularly in the bedroom, Abra soon discovers that nothing in the bucolic town of Northside is what it seems. The local tavern serves a dangerous, predatory underworld. Her husband has developed feral new appetites and a roving eye, and his lack of humanity isn’t entirely emotional. As the moon waxes full, Abra must choose between trusting the man she married, taking a chance on a seductive stranger, or following her own animal instincts.

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