Wolfman Confidential is the third book in author Justin Robinson’s on-going series about Nick Moss. Who is Nick Moss? He is a man who has an interesting life. After all, it’s not exactly safe working as a private investigator in a world where monsters and humans live side by side. From spellbinding witches to wailing phantoms to werewolf cops, Nick must navigate his profession very carefully if he wants to stay alive and stay human.
The novel follows on from previous books City of Devils and Fifty Feet of Trouble, but you needn’t worry about having to read those to understand what’s going on here. Like any great detective novel series, while reading them all can enrich your experience, each one functions as a standalone mystery that can easily become your first entry into this world.
In this last outing, Moss is handed a rather sensitive case. Someone out there is bumping of things that go bump in the night and the police actually want Nick’s help for once. What follows turns out to be one of Nick’s most dangerous and intriguing adventures to date, offering up a delicious slice of neo-noir creature feature fiction that is sure to delight many a monster fan out there.
Moss has quickly become one of my favorite new fiction characters. He’ll get the job done, but since he’s not quite up to James Bondian levels of heroism, he’s going to have a ton of close calls along the way. From his cynical sense of humor to his rough-n-tumble antics to his (thus far) bottomless well of luck, he’s exactly the kind of character I want to see interacting with all of my favorite night creatures. He’s the crime fiction equivalent of Indiana Jones.
Beyond Nick himself, what truly sets this novel and its predecessor apart for this monster lover is Robinson’s delightful sense of humor that is infused into every single page. His dry wit and penchant for unobtrusive meta references to film, urban legends, mythology, and literature simply makes every chapter an insanely entertaining ride for the reader. Justin Robinson is quickly proving himself to be the Raymond Chandler of “monster kid” pulp fiction and this is his finest work to date.
If you’re a fan of monsters, hard-boiled detective fiction, and quirky genre humor, you owe it to yourself to pick up Wolfman Confidential and the other two novels in this series. They are a deft mixture of ’50s crime fiction and ’40s monster movies; the literary equivalent of cult film favorites Cast a Deadly Spell and Witch Hunt, if you will. You also might want to consider checking out Robinson’s other works. The man is a jack of all trades, dishing out all kinds of different tales of horror, fantasy, and science fiction alike. Also, be sure to keep an eye out for the next Nick Moss monster mash! I certainly will be.
