Crazy Town

by Jonathan Maberry

Sam Hunter is a bit of an animal. He's a former Twin Cities cop who lost his badge because of excessive force. Abusive husbands, child molesters, and other lowlifes wound up looking like they'd been mauled by a dog ... or a wolf.

Now Sam's a low-rent PI in Philadelphia. He takes the kinds of cases no one wants. His clients are usually on the fringes of society. The kind who are prey for all manner of predators—human and otherwise.

When Sam takes on a client they become part of his "pack," and no one protects their own better than a werewolf. At least, the kind of werewolf like Sam, who comes from a long, long line of Benandanti—also known as "the hounds of God."

In this short story from Beneath the Skin, Sam tackles another case worthy of his particular skill set.

Genres: Horror, Short Stories

About the author

JONATHAN MABERRY is a NYTimes bestselling author, #1 Audible bestseller, 5-time Bram Stoker Award-winner, 4-time Scribe Award winner, Inkpot Award winner, comic book writer, and producer. He is the author of more than 50 novels, 190 short stories, 16 short story collections, 30 graphic novels, 14 nonfiction books, and has edited 26 anthologies. His vampire apocalypse book series, V-WARS, was a Netflix original series starring Ian Somerhalder. His 2009-10 run as writer on the Black Panther comic formed a large chunk of the recent blockbuster film, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. His bestselling YA zombie series, Rot & Ruin is in development for film at Alcon Entertainment; and John Wick director, Chad Stahelski, is developing Jonathan’s Joe Ledger Thrillers for TV. Jonathan writes in multiple genres including suspense, thriller, horror, science fiction, epic fantasy, and action; and he writes for adults, teens and middle grade. His works include The Pine Deep Trilogy, The Kagen the Damned Trilogy, NecroTek, Ink, Glimpse, the Rot & Ruin series, the Dead of Night series, The Wolfman, X-Files Origins: Devil’s Advocate, The Sleepers War (with Weston Ochse), Mars One, and many others. He is the editor of high-profile anthologies including Weird Tales: 100 Years of Weird, The X-Files, Aliens: Bug Hunt, Out of Tune, Don’t Turn out the Lights: A Tribute to Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, Baker Street Irregulars, Nights of the Living Dead, Shadows & Verse, and others. His comics include Marvel Zombies Return, The Punisher: Naked Kills, Wolverine: Ghosts, Godzilla vs Cthulhu: Death May Die, Bad Blood and many others. Jonathan has written in many popular licensed worlds, including Hellboy, True Blood, The Wolfman, John Carter of Mars, Sherlock Holmes, C.H.U.D., Diablo IV, Deadlands, World of Warcraft, Planet of the Apes, Aliens, Predator, Karl Kolchak, and many others. He the president of the International Association of Media Tie-in Writers, and the editor of Weird Tales Magazine. He lives in San Diego, California. Find him online at www.jonathanmaberry.com

Reviews

[Steph · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ray Porter is the narrator for the audiobook version of this novel.

[Alex Shrugged · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this short story was a little bit better than the others I've read from the author. I would give it 3 1/2 stars if I could.

This is a horror story about a stripper/prostitute that needs a job done by the detective/werewolf, Sam Hunter. They meet in a bar and she proceeds to get drunk and tell her story. She is frightened for her kids so much so that her friend has taken them to some place where even she cannot know where they are. And now she is seeking help to stop this evil.

Any problems with this story? Nothing the author (through his character) didn't point out in the midst of the story. That is the charm of these stories, and like all of these short stories from this author, the ending (at least the action part) is short and without much detail. Most of the author's effort was placed in the set up.

Any modesty issues? The subject was often prostitution and nudity. There wasn't much detail, but if you are worried about modesty issues, the subject seemed to be enough from my perspective.

Even though the ending was rather short, I thought it fit with the story. I didn't feel cheated or anything.

I might read this short story again.

[Nur Aishah Azriy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another good version of Short Story made by Jonathan Maberry.
This is another sequel from my previous reading, We All Make Sacrifices.
Once again, the maturity of this book should be warned for the audience, and it has a mention for prostitution and nudity.

However, the narrator gives such a in-depth characters inside the story very well that I can forgive for the voice over on female characters.

For those who loves supernatural genre adding with a super sleuth with super powers, I'd say just go for it. This is for an hour audiobook, suitable for busy readers.