It seems odd to to define something by what it is not. Non-Fiction comes to mind. Gluten-Free, Peanut-Free, even Non-GMO. Well, fake werewolf novels are kind like that. They are the chicory-root coffee of Horror. The difference is they don’t advertise that they are Werewolf-Free. Part of the fun is thinking that werewolves might exist, but by the end, usually a detective type person has determined it was all fake. There might be an unmasking of the villain. Other times it is people sitting around, laughing at the idea that they had believed, if only for a moment. I’m not going to lie. I prefer my werewolves to be real.
The first fake werewolf was named Hugues. He appeared in Hugues the Weirwolf (1838) by Sutherland Menzies. This is a Gothic novel so the false nature of the werewolf is par-for-the-course. In the spirit of Ann Radcliffe, many Gothic novels explained away their terrors at the end of the book. These were known as Gothic Explique or Explained Gothic. There were some Gothics that featured real monsters. Melmoth the Wanderer (1820) by Charles Maturin features a brief episode with a real werewolf. Hugues appeared eighteen years later and was a Radcliffian piece. Perhaps the most famous early stories “The Werewolf” (1839)by Fredrick Marryat appeared only a year later.
The plot of the tale has the old Hugues family, known as Wulfric believed to be werewolves. Our hero puts on a werewolf disguise to extort meat from the local butchers. This man has the smarts to cut off the villain’s paw, finding it to be a hand. Instead of burning the fake werewolf at the stake, he is allowed to marry the butcher’s niece. For more on this story, go here.
The House of Fear (1924) by Robert W. Service was written by the same guy who gave us “The Cremation of Sam McGee” in 1907. By 1924, he tried to branch out into thrillers. This novel has Judge de Marsac using mind control on his younger brother to turn him into a monster. The idea of mind control had been popular in fiction since George du Maurier’s Trilby (1894). For more on mesmerists and mind-controllers, go here. The idea of creating a monster by this method would become quite a common idea in the Science Fiction and Horror Pulps but Service got there first.
It Walks By Night (1930) by John Dickson Carr started his career as a novelist with this first Mystery starring Henri Bencolin. A man is murdered in Carr’s signature fashion, a locked room and mutilated. There is some talk of a werewolf but it is quickly discarded as the evidence piles up. Despite this early werewolfery, the cover art often shows claws or other werewolf images. very early on Carr established that he would be the Man Who Explained Miracles or monsters. His Mysteries often have supernatural appearing cases that are always explained away. For more on this book, go here.
The Hero Pulps liked to hint at werewolves even if they never materialize. The image of a werewolf is striking and makes for good cover art. Promises! Promises!
The Brand of the Werewolf (Doc Savage, January 1934) by Kenneth Robeson (Lester Dent) is an adventure story with only the slightest of werewolfery in it. Despite the covers, this is a Northern adventure tied to pirate treasure. The villain, El Rabanos, has a mark taken from the pirate, Henry Morgan, that bears a wolfshead. That’s about it.
“The Flame Master” (The Spider, March 1935) by Grant Stockbridge (Norvell W. Page) features Aronk Dong, the “Lion Man From Mars,” as a villain who can throw lightning at his enemies. Not really a werewolf but that cover promises much it does not deliver on.
The Shudder Pulps were similar, suggesting lycanthropes, weird degenerates who have a wolfy aspect but prove to be human enough. “I Am the Wolf” (Thrilling Mystery, July 1937) by Henry Kuttner is perhaps the best example. Edgar Coyle drives up to the Grey Mountains and the old family mansion. Coyle has yellow eyes like a wolf. All his family does. There’s a nice family curse rhyme that mentions: “…By the blood of wolf in the veins of man.” Somebody wants Edgar to think he’s turning into a wolf, for the same reason everybody in a Shudder Pulp does anything, money. Grandfather left a fortune in his will…
More hero Pulps but in an age of nostalgia, with Ron Goulart adding to Paul Ernst two dozen Avenger novels with a dozen of his own.
Red Moon (1974) by Kenneth Robeson (Ron Goulart) has Nellie Grey visiting her aunt and uncle in Wisconsin when she happens across a dead man. His throat has been torn out. She reports it to the cops but the body disappears. Later, after receiving a phone call, she goes to an abandoned cider mill and is kidnapped. Despite the rumors of a werewolf, the secret actions of a group of scientific researchers at a local college are the real villains.
The Werewolf Walks Tonight (1974) by Michael Avallone tries to do something similar with fake supernatural and the purplest prose since the Weird Menace Pulps. The town of Fletcherville has a number of deaths and one disappearance that fuel rumors of a werewolf running about town. The Stan Sleuth, Philip St. John shows up when news spreads across the country.
Mystery fiction for children has never shied away from the suggestion of monsters. Frank and Joe Hardy were created in 1927 but they eventually got around to the fake werewolf in their fifty-ninth entry in The Hardy Boys series.
Night of the Werewolf (1979) by Franklin W. Dixon (James D. Lawrence) begins while the boys are on a double date. They see a glowing werewolf. In the Adirondacks they find a man named John Tabor who has werewolves in his family’s past. Not surprising, the locals blame a rash of new attacks on him. Someone tries to kill the detectives with a silver bullet and then a time bomb. There is something going on here that isn’t about lycanthropy. The trail to the truth will take Frank and Joe to a local Mohawk tribe. For the full plot, go here.
Even the Mystery magazine weren’t above an occasional fake werewolf for an October issue.
“The Full Moon Means Murder” (Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine, October 1981) by Brett Halliday (James Reasoner) has millionaire Talbot Barron being attacked by a manwolf. Mike Shayne is brought in to help Barron and his blackmail problems. The red-headed detective is chasing more than werewolves. For more on this story and the rest of this issue, go here.
Conclusion
The dual track nature of the Gothic means that Mystery fiction will always have the option of spicing things up with some fake monsters, the werewolf included. Some writers, like John Dickson Carr, did this all the time. Even Agatha Christie wasn’t above such dressing up. There is a kind of code that tells the reader that this is a Mystery and to quote Sherlock; “No Ghosts Need Apply”. Despite that message, Holmes & Watson did a small amount of work to cement the image of a deadly hound in our minds. It’s not a fake werewolf but comes close. This kind of “Is it real?” fun hasn’t been as popular in recent times but it still exists. When its done for children it is a Scooby-Doo cartoon, but when done with some real attention, you get TV shows like True Detective: Night Country, a personal fav.
Whether you prefer your monsters real or fake (or your Mystery fiction filled with fake monsters) is a matter of personal taste. There have been some other werewolf novels that have tread this line to their own success. Basil Copper’s The House of the Wolf (1983) and Charles L. Grant‘s The Dark Cry of the Moon (1986) both ask the question through out the book: is this a real monster or a fake? The answer doesn’t come to the very end, keeping you in suspense the whole time. Whether the werewolves are real or fake is almost secondary since both books are excellent reads. Both authors have a reputation in the Horror field but also have written books more in the Suspense field. You never can tell until that last page…
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