The Nightwalker: Thomas Tessier

Bobby Ives is an American vet living in London. Everything is going great - wonderful lover, government stipend and an easygoing existence. So why is he beating his alcoholic neighbor senseless and having violent, sadistic and perverse urges?

Predictably, these urges culminate in a murder. Another murder follows, and another and it isn't long before Hyde Park is under constant police surveillance and Bobby Ives is a wanted man. But will they recognize him when they catch him? Wasn't the man, the thing that murdered all those people monstrous in form, hairy and sharp-toothed and not really Bobby himself?

They don't write books like this anymore. As much an eloquent depiction of a veteran's self-destruction as it is a horror novel, The Nightwalker is hailed by a lot of recognizable names in the horror field as a brilliant novel, and rightly so. Thomas Tessier dresses this book in so much subtle symbolism that it almost comes as a shock that he finally uses the word 'werewolf' in the closing pages of the novel. The thrill of this ride is joining Bobby in his descent into madness; is he really a werewolf or is he simply pushing off his emerging psychosis on a fictional scapegoat, clearing himself of murders his rational mind won't accept him having done. At a sliver over 200 pages, The Nightwalker certainly does not overstay its welcome but doesn't feel too short, either. An additional novella rounds out the books length to Over 300 pages.

Do yourself a favor: buy this book and read it. It's an entirely different approach to a familiar topic and it's a refreshing change of pace for any jaded horror fans, especially the lycanthrope loyalists out there. Bear in mind that this book was initially published in 1979 and almost three decades later has easily withstood the test of time. Thomas Tessier, I salute you.

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Mass Market Paperback: 305 pages
Publisher: Leisure Books (January 29, 2008)
ISBN-10: 0843960450
ISBN-13: 978-0843960457