The Wolf's Hour (1 of 3) [Dramatized Adaptation]

Written by Robert McCammon

Narrated by A Full Cast, Alyssa Wilmoth, Tim Carlin and 23 more

It is 1944. A message from Paris warns Allied Intelligence of something big in the works---something which might have serious implications for D-Day. The only way to get more information from the agent in Paris---now closely watched by the Gestapo---is to send in a personal courier.

Russian EmigrE Michael Gallatin is picked for the job. In retirement as a secret agent since a grisly episode in North Africa, Gallatin is parachuted into occupied France, on a mission which will take him to the festering heart of the Third Reich on the scent of doomsday.

As a master spy, Gallatin has proved he can take on formidable foes---and kill them. As a passionate lover, he attracts beautiful women. But there is one extra factor which makes Michael Gallatin a unique special agent---he is a werewolf, able to change form almost at will, able to assume the body of a wolf and its capacity to kill with savage, snarling fury.

In the madness of war, Gallatin hunts his prey---ready to out-think his opponents with his finely-tuned brain. Or tear their throats out with his finely-honed teeth....

• Language: English
• Publisher: GraphicAudio
• Release date: Jun 3, 2020
• ISBN: 9781648809637

Robert McCammon

Robert McCammon is the New York Times bestselling author of Boy’s Life and Gone South, among many critically acclaimed works of fiction, with millions of copies of his novels in print. He is a recipient of the Bram Stoker Lifetime Achievement Award, the Grand Master Award from the World Horror Convention, and is a World Fantasy Award winner. He lives in Alabama. Visit the author at RobertMcCammon.com.

Reviews for The Wolf's Hour (1 of 3) [Dramatized Adaptation]

[fingerpost_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

There was a fad in the 1980s to take a horror theme, and refit it for a more general thriller. Robert McCammon did this very well in "Wolf's Hour" where a werewolf works as an undercover British agen fighting the Nazis. The plot is well developed, as are the characters, an it is written well enough that it is easy to get wrapped up in the story and totally forget how preposteros it is. Good fun.

[harperkingsley · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Set during World War II, this story begins with an operative Michael behind enemy lines stealing messenger pouches and killing Nazis with his WEREWOLF teeth. He then goes back to his girlfriend's apartment in Berlin and after he falls asleep is woken by an assassin in the house.

About a year later, he's living alone in the middle of nowhere and is recalled to active duty. He is given a mission to go into occupied territory and take out a Nazi base.

This is a straight-up action book with a hard-nosed operative going in to Germany to complete a mission and rescue a bunch of people. There's some flashbacks to where he was infected with lycanthropy, which is severely fascinating, then it's back to the action. Plus, he ends up with a hot girlfriend and discovers the power of love.

[mainrun · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Not a very scary book. I thought they would have had Michael's/Mikhail's son, Petry, come back to add scary action. Couple of disappointing plotting - Harry Sanders train thing and the "comedy" towards the end with Kitty. The train was not part of the overall tight/nice storyline. The good-ol'-boy attitude for a bit at the end seemed odd. A lot better than Lost Boys though.

[dchurch71 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Robert McCammon is such an amazing writer. Loved the Wolf’s Hour, a brilliant read. For me mixing horror, espionage, classic World War II, and adventure it is a win-win. Has that Brian Lumley Necroscope feel to it except with werewolves instead of Vampires. McCammon is such a vivid writer, he really sucks the reader into the atmosphere of the story I could almost smell the gun oil off of the weapons fired or the smell of pine in the forest when Michael was in his wolf form running through the woods. I really took my time reading this and savoring it, didn’t want it to end. I believe years later McCammon wrote a follow up to this, I got to find that! 5 Stars easily.

[timothy_dalton007 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

***SPOILERS***Normally I don't include a lot of spoilers in my reviews, but with my views of this piece of work I find myself compelled.First off in my rating opinion this book gets a solid 4 stars. The story was very well scripted and paced especially for the length of this novel. I had a few minor beefs with the book.Since our hero is a werewolf and has the ability to change at will, I found myself wondering why Michael didn't do certain things at certain times. Like when he was on Sandlers train and he was in the dark section that was a razor blade maze of horror. He should simply have change only his eyes so that he could see in the dark as a wolf. There were other times too, when he would think to himself, why he couldn't change because he would be torn to pieces by the weapons of the 4 or 5 Nazis that were after him, but then several scenes down the way he would change and take on up to 12 soldiers in his wolf form and have no problems.Those were minor problems I had with the story compared to the many women in the story. It seemed very much that the ladies Mr. Gallitan hooks up with during the course of the book are more concerned with jumping his man sausage than the present mission at hand. Let's see, if I'm a super secret spy and needed for a top secret mission and I'm introduced to my contact and it's a women, and we start discussing our plan to undermine Hitler, and then "Oh, wait a second, you are a strikingly sexy woman, I think I'm going to have to satisfy my primal needs with you before we save thousands of military lives and who cares about ending the war early and saving all those Jewish people in the concentration camps, they should understand. Because when handling things of this magnitude my priorities need to be in the right places, otherwise I wouldn't have been selected for this mission, right?"He meets one woman for perhaps 2 or 3 days and they are all over each other, and I must have read 20 pages throughout the novel about heat meeting heat and in the kindling embrace, and fiery passion shot forth with enough fury to end all wars. With all the naughty scenes that took place it seemed Robert McCammon decided to take a break and write a few soft core porn novellas along the way. When reading these types of segments in books, they seem like such a waste of time when I could be reading things that are way more important, and I find myself skimming quickly through those sections. I just hated that I had to do this so often in the book.But, those issues aside I did like the way he wrote and described "the change". It was in awesome detail, and I also liked that just because Michael was a werewolf it wasn't one of those ones where he was immortal and if bullets passed through his body he healed up like Wolverine. If our hero was hurt even during his time as a quadruped he took that battle scar with him as he changed back.Each of The villains were ones that I was glad to see bite the dust. They each do such vile things that you just can't wait for them to receive their comeuppance. Whether it be in a blaze of bullets, a throat ripped out by an already bloody muzzle, chopped to pieces, or torn apart limb from limb. They all were candy for the brain when it comes to ruthless killers getting what they deserve.I'm looking forward to reading more of McCammon's work and the Matthew Corbett series is next on my list. Hopefully he will continue to engross me with his story telling and bring me into the worlds he creates, but perhaps with not so much over the top sexual desire.

[randystafford · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

My reaction to reading this novel in 1997.This has the tone of a horror novel though McCammon rationalizes lycanthropy as a disease. I liked the scenes with the werewolf clan in Russia and the death train of the American hunter in Germany. The other WWII parts were ok.

[bookmarque · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Pretty melodramatic. I remember reading this the first time and being fascinated with the history of the werewolves in Russia. McCammon never reveals fully how Gallatinov got out. We see the entire pack killed and his escape, but not his assimilation into human existence. Anyway, he’s here and it’s a damn good thing. Pretty good for a pulp writer to make me care about the fate of his characters. I felt sorrow and outrage where I was supposed to. The brutality of the Brimstone Club was almost too much, I had to pause and put the book down. I don’t know if I did last time, being caught up in the plot, but this time I did. McCammon’s flow is good. He stays in one time-frame long enough for you to get absorbed and forget the scenario in the forest and vise-versa. Funny, how he creates an elder werewolf with no answers to give about the history of the species. I guess a novel can sell even if it’s got a mild case of writers block.

[olivermagnus · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

If you are fan of spy thrillers and horror you can't do much better than the story of Michael Gallatin, a Russian immigrant now working for British Intelligence as an agent, who just happens to be a werewolf. The novel takes place in the time leading up to WWII's D-Day with Gallatin attempting to find a way to prevent a German plot to derail the Allied invasion. In several chapters mixed throughout the book, we learn the riveting and heartbreaking story of how Gallatin became a werewolf.

I'm not a big paranormal fan and don't usually like stories about werewolves, with some exceptions. Gallatin is definitely an exception. I was completely immersed in this captivating story, which was filled with historical authenticity. McCammon is a master who knows how to keep you turning the pages.

I read this book for the first time when it was originally published in 1989 and have never forgotten it. With it's conversion to Kindle I couldn't resist the opportunity to own it once more. I realize how long it's been since I've read anything else by Robert McCammon and plan to correct that as soon as possible. I highly recommend adding this fascinating story to your book collection.

[nickhowes · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Werewolf vs. Nazis. Great combination. Had-edged with a good plot that pulls the reader along, just enough werewolf without the creature completely taking over the story, the flashbacks for the origin story are well-paced. You can only do Lon Chaney so long....when he becomes the wolf, he's no longer human and loses interest. This approach, especially with scumbag enemies is a nice alternative.

[amcheri-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

It wasn't perfect but I couldn't stop listening. I was ready for it to end when it did but I mostly loved the whole book.

[ghibli_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

It’s a good, honest, adventure book. Lot of action (daring escapes, fights, weapons, and alike) and a hero quite attractive, at the same time a noble warrior and a conflicted being. The supernatural is worked quite well, but it’s actually nothing else if another weapon against the bad ones.Michael’s background (his childhood and how he became a werewolf) is told during chapters-flashback. At first, I thought the thing was a little boring, because it cut the action, but then some of the more touching scenes happen just in those chapters.A nice reading but without great emotions. The scheme is a bit too plain for my tastes: the hero puts himself in more and more big danger, obviously he’s fated to get out of trouble, but he’s a man, not a super-hero, so his companions have a dangerous tendency to fall like flies (oh, sorry, he’s a werewolf!! But this type of were hasn’t got big powers over the skill of turning big-strong-wolf).

[visibleghost · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A little boy is caught up in the Russian Revolution. The revolutionaries don't get him- the werewolves do. These werewolves have a library so he gets an education not only in the way of wolves but also in the humanities. Some conflicts arise from this. Imagine that. Jump ahead to World War II. Our little boy is now grown, is living in Scotland, and is employed by the British Secret Service as an operative. The timelines criss-cross throughout the book. In the later timeline we have some really nasty Nazis who have developed a really nasty gas that may be used to delay D-day invasions. Thus, we get to the race against the clock scenario with many close calls to death by our hero lycanthrope employed as a spy. What do you mean?- it sounds silly. Well, it kinda is but it's a good kind of silly. It never rises above genre bit it's a good example of good genre. In this case, a blend of the fantasy, horror, and espionage genres.