Happy Goat Horror

After barely escaping the haunted streets of Arkham and Miskatonic University, Travis Daniels is on the run with his ward, Leslie Owens. Seeking refuge in the remote woods of Monashee Mountain, their lives take another dark turn when they witness a brutal, savage murder. Now, they’re thrust into a web of deceit, danger, and old grudges as they are drawn into a conflict between warring factions in the small town of Tonasket.

Travis must navigate the escalating tension between the town’s residents, the Native American tribes, and the ancient, shadowy creatures that dwell in the wilderness. The clock is ticking as dangerous rivalries between Sasquatch and werewolves threaten to erupt, and the local logging operations are sabotaged by forces more sinister than anyone can imagine.

As Travis works to uncover the truth behind the murder, he must decide who he can trust before it’s too late. With danger closing in, only one thing is certain: the truth will come at a cost.

Dark bleatings, my beautiful tribe! I’m back with another JP Behrens book today, and this won’t be a very long review, because the book is a novella and I have found it hard to dig into it in much detail without giving spoilers.

We find our inquisitive protagonist in the woods with Leslie, a wielder of witchcraft (when needed), when they’re confronted by some truly humongous werewolves. There is also a corpse. They immediately realise that they’re in some quite deep shit, here, which only gets worse for Travis when he’s questioned about that body they saw, and of course, no one is going to believe there were giant werewolves.

I was hooked immediately in these first couple of chapters, fascinated by the werewolves (because I LOVE werewolves), and intrigued by wtf was going on around these here parts. Unfortunately, after this, I did find the story dragged quite a bit for me, most likely because we did not quickly get back to the werewolves. I thought the story opened with such a bang but then the tension dropped off a bit too much. We get into a lot of money talk with local businesses, and that becomes the focus for a good chunk of the story but I was just dying to get back to some scary, toothy goodness.

I couldn’t honestly tell you if this is because the story was too slow or because I’m just too impatient, but either way, I didn’t feel as invested as I wanted to. However, I do like good old Travis (I’ve met him before in a previous book!), and overall I did enjoy the story more once it picked back up towards the third act.

I’ve rated it 3/5, as I liked it but didn’t love it. I’d recommend it to people who enjoy detective story/horror cross overs, particularly if you’re in the mood for something you can settle in with and read in one sitting. If you’d like to check out the book or the author, I’ve popped some links below for you:

MURDER IN THE MONASHEE MOUNTAINS

JP BEHRENS

Bleeeeat!