Werewolf

Written in Pritchard's characteristic fast-paced and compelling prose style, Werewolf is set in August 1945 in the British Zone of occupied Germany. Silas Payne is a Scotland Yard detective seconded to the Military Government in Germany to run a police training school as part of the denazification policy. When a former Waffen SS soldier is found murdered in the cellar of a requisitioned house, Payne begins an investigation that leads him on a tortuous path of discovery, via interned Gestapo agents, corrupt British officials and secret SS medical experiments, as he seeks to maintain his high moral code in a world where the line between justice and arbitrary vengeance has become fatally blurred. The narrative moves with a Chandleresque efficiency; the dialogue is stark and often harsh, but most effective in conveying the personalities of the speakers. There are many twists to the plot, but all are credible. Matthew Pritchard keeps his readers guessing until the end.