Written by Justin Richards
ISBN:
978-1-84877-551-0
Published
by Templar Publishing
Operation Velvet Claw
‘It’s what you don’t
know that kills you. But I do know this;
the next 24 hours could change the course of the war.
Am I exaggerating? I certainly feel like I have the whole future
of the world in my hands. Not just me of
course – Acer is in charge. And Boffin’s
the man who first discovered the terrible secrets of Castle Wolfenburg......’
The story begins during
the Second World War and the evil scientific experiments by the Nazi’s in the
fortress known as Castle Wolfenburg. From
there the story leaps into present day and takes up the lives of Peter, a bored
teenager up from the city with his dad, discovering that he’s completely cut
off from his Facebook addiction and his friends, and helping on an
archaeological dig in the Cotswolds.
There he meets David Forrest, son of the wealthy businessman, Sebastian
Forrest who is funding the dig. The
Forrest’s are an incredibly wealthy and very connected family and carry a lot
of weight throughout the story, there are a lot of exciting chapters involving
both David and his Dad and some very interesting discoveries about them
both. I do recall a lot of ‘Ahhhh so that’s
who he is...’ as I worked my way through
the novel.
In the public house
which also runs a small bed and breakfast, the boys get to know Carys, the
daughter of the owner, who knows a lot about the wolves in the sanctuary not
far from the pub, and knows of the legends of the land, about the Manor, and
the flowers that grow only in this one place in the Cotswolds, and about the
legend of the werewolves.
There are many
characters within the story that are all linked in some small way. The manor itself conjures up an image in the
mind of many an old manor I’ve walked around over the years, with windows with
latticed glass panes that hide an abundance of secrets within. When Peter spots a girl desperate to escape
from an upstairs room, he returns a day too late and discovers claw marks on
the bare floorboards, and a teddy ripped to shreds, with his mind racing at all
possibilities, he is spooked by something inside the manor, and indeed so was
I, given that I read this chapter late one night!!!
Justin Richards is one
of my favourite writers of fiction, having read and loved his novel ‘Deviant
Strain’ involving Captain Jack Harkness with the 9th Doctor and Rose
Tyler, I again found the same delights within this novel. Ok not with the Doctor or Captain Jack, or
indeed Rose Tyler, but the level of intrigue, lots of running, and one hell of
an imagination, and many ‘spooked’ moments through the story. I’d like to note here, that if you are going
to read this at night, that you make sure you don’t have a dog in the room, one
that barks at anything, and always barks at that particular moment when one of
the leading characters is about to come pretty close to a snappy snarly
werewolf!!!
The story never dips
once, there aren’t any moments when you want to skip a few pages because the
explanations are a little too long winded, every part of the novel, every piece
of detail is perfect. This novel is also
enhanced with ‘augmented reality technology’.
You have to download the free Wolfstone app to your smart phone to see
the hidden content.
Published by Templar,
the paperback cover has a strange feel to it, not sticky but not smooth, yet
despite this, it’s one heck of a ride and ‘if death were an animal, she WOULD
be a wolf.’
5/5
