Moonstomp by Tim Wells

This is a short book, very, very short and before you know it you are at the end.  Well, the book ends but that's the problem it just stops.  There is no resolution, no grand reveal and old Bovshover still has no clue what's going on - in all honesty we, the reader, are only surmising as well.  This is such a shame as the writing is great, the setting wonderfully rich and evocative, peopled with slightly drawn characters who are brought to life by their environs.  Honestly, this was heading for a 5 Star read all the way and then it just stopped as brutally as a Doc Marten to the face would stop you.  Can you tell I left the book feeling mighty disappointed?

Set on the cusp of the 1980's and focusing around a volatile music scene - punk is yet to mutate in to the New Romantics (how that happened I still can't quite fathom and I lived through it), Two Tone is bringing a mix of SKA and Reggae to a mainstream audience.  Politically it is the Winter of Discontent, Labour are on the outs and Margaret Thatcher is poised to become the first Female Prime Minister.  Unemployment is about to sky rocket and for the young it is all about the weekend down the pub, finishing off a work week in the only way you know how - at the bottom of a glass and maybe with a fight or two thrown in for good measure.

Joe Bovshover may be a stereotypical skinhead, with decidedly strong views on the nastiness of the National Front, but he has a decent printing job and a real passion for Punk and Reggae so the weekend for him is about the gigs he can get to and the records he can buy.  The author brings him to life on the page and there is a real sense of occasion in getting ready for those nights out, and a healthy dose of rose tinted nostalgia too.  When people start turning up dead in brutal fashion all over London during nights of the Full Moon it doesn't look good, especially for Joe.

A great blend of the resilience of youth and a little supernatural undertone to the murders and it is a joyous ride.  The werewolf element is given a light touch with little nods here and there to the potential for the murderer to be this mythic creature but it is not overt and it is never resolved.  Everything points to the identity of the killer and his transformation but it is not resolved - for the reader or the Lycanthrope in question.

It is a very fun read but expect it to be over before it really gets in to high gear.

THIS IS AN HONEST AND UNBIASED REVIEW OF A FREE COPY OF THE BOOK SUPPLIED VIA THE PIGEONHOLE.