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Warwolf
Deputy Ray Tatum returns in a story of Blue Ridge crime and carnage, kicked off by the discovery of a body high in the limbs of a black oak tree. Wry, laconic, and more than a little world-weary, Tatum pursues a savage killer through the rural Virginia uplands with the hot-headed assistance of Special Agent Kate LeComte. Warwolf is by turns hilarious and deeply unsettling, and T.R. Pearson’s gift for capturing the true voice of the new south is on conspicuous display. The mountains of Virginia have never seemed so dangerously alive, and there remains no better company in the southern highlands than Deputy Ray Tatum. Ray Tatum also appears in Cry Me A River, Blue Ridge, and Polar -- written to be read in no particular order.
- GenresFiction
295 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 30, 2011
26 people are currently reading
65 people want to read
About the author
T.R. Pearson
34 books273 followersThomas Reid Pearson is an American novelist born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He is the author of seventeen novels and four works of non-fiction under his own name, including A Short History of a Small Place, Cry Me A River, Jerusalem Gap, and Seaworthy, and has written three additional novels -- Ranchero, Beluga, and Nowhere Nice -- under the pseudonym Rick Gavin. Pearson has also ghostwritten several other books, both fiction and nonfiction, and has written or co-written various feature film and TV scripts.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
July 18, 2011
I've been a fan of T.R. Pearson since I first read A Short History of a Small Place way back in the mid 80s. I was very pleased that Warwolf is just as funny, complicated, and moving as all the rest of my favorite T.R. Pearson books. It's set in the mountains of Virginia, and begins with the laconic Deputy Ray Tatum finding a dead body high up in a tree while he's tromping through the woods in search of a morbidly obese and housebound woman's dog. Finding the body sets Ray off on a hunt for a serial killer, accompanied by a possibly deranged FBI agent named Kate.
Warwolf is packed full of the usual peculiar and memorable T.R. Pearson characters; I grew up in the Appalachian mountains, and most of them are versions of people I've known all my life. And it's a page-turner, as Ray and Kate work their way closer to finding the killer and things get progressively grimmer and scarier. It's also hysterically funny, even as it veers into horrific tragedy. I had a hard time putting it down, and highly recommend it!
Warwolf is packed full of the usual peculiar and memorable T.R. Pearson characters; I grew up in the Appalachian mountains, and most of them are versions of people I've known all my life. And it's a page-turner, as Ray and Kate work their way closer to finding the killer and things get progressively grimmer and scarier. It's also hysterically funny, even as it veers into horrific tragedy. I had a hard time putting it down, and highly recommend it!
March 22, 2012
T. R. Pearson has a narrative voice unlike any other, and it is wonderful to spend a little more time in Ray Tatum's head, solving crime in Appalachia. I'm not much for series, generally, but the Tatum novels are always a treat. Think I'll go back and reread Cry Me A River soon.
Somebody give this man a massive book contract, please.
Somebody give this man a massive book contract, please.
June 30, 2011
I kind of like it. A little grim, though.
July 1, 2012
I would drop anything to read a new book by T.R. Pearson.
May 17, 2019
The writing was fun and the plot was overall engaging, but MAN does Pearson belabor some tired stereotypes about people who live in the mountains. From the first page I was rolling my eyes but I held out through the whole book hoping the main character would let go of some of his cynicism about the people around him. Having grown up just on the other side from where the plot takes place, I can guarantee those rather judgemental generalizations hold true for a VERY FEW PEOPLE, and the rest are just typical folks. The plot could have held together without these tropes. Disappointed.
January 19, 2020
As a very longtime fan of the author, I’ve been looking forward to catching up with his last almost 10. This novel was first up. Sad to say, I found the plot clichéd and cinematic. And occasionally sloppy. But the writing is still good enough to push me from just ok to a good three stars. It’s T. R., after all.
February 2, 2022
T R Pearson's stories are always five star for me.
Have enjoyed all the Ray Tatum stories so far and this one was something else for sure. Creepy and so funny all the way through.
Have enjoyed all the Ray Tatum stories so far and this one was something else for sure. Creepy and so funny all the way through.
October 14, 2019
At times disgusting and then laugh out loud humorous. Fun read that kept me up at night turning pages when I finally had time to read. The ending surprised me.
February 14, 2022
war wolf
Good story…interesting group of characters. I like the way the story develops kept my interest. I’m ready for another rate down a mystery
Good story…interesting group of characters. I like the way the story develops kept my interest. I’m ready for another rate down a mystery
November 24, 2011
Based on what I’ve rated 4 stars, I’ll have to agree with the author and give it 3. A good Kindle deal, I got sucked in by the opening chapters regarding the trebuchet, fun to read about, but really a diversion.
It’s hard for me to be objective about a book by this author, as I can’t help but compare anything to his wonderful Neely trilogy, which I read when they came out, and have re-read parts from time to time and still plan on full re-reading but only 1/3 done, and which I’d rate 4-5 stars. In those he lovingly poked fun at Southerners (genteel as well as low-life) and southernisms, in a distinct narrative voice harkening to long yarns told slowly (and out loud). Like many others, I heard Faulkner and Mark Twain--pretty good company.
The Ray Tatum stories, as I recall (although I’ve read them more recently than the Neely books, they don’t stick with me as much), have veered more toward standard mysteries, and the narrative voice has become crueler although still humorous. Of course the subjects here are mostly the lowest of Appalachian hillbilly low-lifes, but even the few decent folks have their flaws emphasized. But a full book of vicious but witty descriptions of these folks gets a bit tiresome. The female (ex/on-leave) FBI agent is a hoot, but her repeated over-the-top shenanigans also wore thin. (Or maybe I wasn't in the right mood, reading it on the flight back from the emotionally stressful visit to get my folks signed up for assisted living.) Guess I’m saying he wrote caricatures (including the narrator, who was more pensive and complex in prior books, as best I recall) rather than characters. Would make a great comedic Coen brothers movie.
It’s hard for me to be objective about a book by this author, as I can’t help but compare anything to his wonderful Neely trilogy, which I read when they came out, and have re-read parts from time to time and still plan on full re-reading but only 1/3 done, and which I’d rate 4-5 stars. In those he lovingly poked fun at Southerners (genteel as well as low-life) and southernisms, in a distinct narrative voice harkening to long yarns told slowly (and out loud). Like many others, I heard Faulkner and Mark Twain--pretty good company.
The Ray Tatum stories, as I recall (although I’ve read them more recently than the Neely books, they don’t stick with me as much), have veered more toward standard mysteries, and the narrative voice has become crueler although still humorous. Of course the subjects here are mostly the lowest of Appalachian hillbilly low-lifes, but even the few decent folks have their flaws emphasized. But a full book of vicious but witty descriptions of these folks gets a bit tiresome. The female (ex/on-leave) FBI agent is a hoot, but her repeated over-the-top shenanigans also wore thin. (Or maybe I wasn't in the right mood, reading it on the flight back from the emotionally stressful visit to get my folks signed up for assisted living.) Guess I’m saying he wrote caricatures (including the narrator, who was more pensive and complex in prior books, as best I recall) rather than characters. Would make a great comedic Coen brothers movie.
June 7, 2022
I started Warwolf last night just to take a little break from War and Peace, which I've been plugging away at for a week or so now. So the plan was just to read a chapter or two of Warwolf for variety's sake. But that didn't happen. I stayed up late last night reading and finished the book this afternoon.
Warwolf features the same well-polished prose and attention to characterization and descriptive detail that you find in Mr. Pearson's other books. But what makes this one different is that it is very plot-driven. It's a page-turner!
The author has said that the book is little grim. I'll see that and raise him a "grotesque". You'd have to look hard to find a character that you'd say was "normal". And yet, at the same time, you feel a tenderness for some of them, pity for several others; you feel revolted by several, and then there's one or two that evoke a deep ambivalence. But there aren't any characters in the book who you don't end up feeling strongly about, one way or another, including the minor characters. It's a talented writer who can push that much emotion to you through the pages of a book.
Highly recommended.
Warwolf features the same well-polished prose and attention to characterization and descriptive detail that you find in Mr. Pearson's other books. But what makes this one different is that it is very plot-driven. It's a page-turner!
The author has said that the book is little grim. I'll see that and raise him a "grotesque". You'd have to look hard to find a character that you'd say was "normal". And yet, at the same time, you feel a tenderness for some of them, pity for several others; you feel revolted by several, and then there's one or two that evoke a deep ambivalence. But there aren't any characters in the book who you don't end up feeling strongly about, one way or another, including the minor characters. It's a talented writer who can push that much emotion to you through the pages of a book.
Highly recommended.
November 26, 2024
No matter how many years pass between offerings, Pearson’s main characters have a way of feeling oddly comforting and instantly familiar. Tatum, this time, is paired with the profane and more than a little stressed Kate LeComte, who is probably best described as the sort of woman that results when you cobble together an FBI agent with a stevedore. And Deputy Ray Tatum, slogging through life with his search light switched constantly to on, is just a joy to spend time with, the kind of guy you’d like to pass a quiet evening with “dismantling people,” Benfield fashion, while sipping (decent) wine on a front porch. All combined, what results is a novel heavy on dialogue and repartee that is energetic, snappy, and wholly believable. Pearson’s ability to make the rural hollows of Virginia come to stinking life is amazing and pitch-perfect--so much so that if I were ever undecided about whether or not I wanted to visit the rural mountain wide-spots of Virginia, I no longer have any doubts. I don’t. And the plot, grisly and depraved, makes for fascinating, somewhat voyeuristic reading. You simply will not be able to put it down. In fact, punctuated as it is with laugh-out-loud dialogue and astoundingly candid human observation of the variety largely avoided by lazier, politically correct authors today, I guarantee you’ll have it read in no time. Read it, be horrified and repulsed a little by it, laugh a little while being horrified and repulsed, and then tell a friend.
September 21, 2016
Warwolf was another Ray Tatum story. I find I like Ray except when I don't. Is he a decent guy or not, I don't know. He is damaged,he accepts what comes his way. He is a good and smart policeman except when he is not. Although he is an outsider wherever he goes, he seems to get the "crackers," the good old boys and the left-behinds and knows how to deal with them pretty well. He doesn't like them or the depressing back hollers, and would rather be somewhere else, but it is what it is, and Ray has a life even if he isn't sure he wants it. As always with Ray Tatum, the murders are gruesome and the locals are people that I know and went to school with, people I see every day. Ray, i.e. T. R., can summarize them and their ways and their psyches pretty darned well. Ray is wry and funny, and he pays attention. It is a rare page that I don't marvel at the way Ray talks or at the sheer beauty of the sentences, and even rarer that I don't laugh out loud.
And as always, T. R. Pearson can write a hell of a sentence and a really good story. I hope none of them are true, because he may not be good PR for the mountains off Shenandoah Valley.
And as always, T. R. Pearson can write a hell of a sentence and a really good story. I hope none of them are true, because he may not be good PR for the mountains off Shenandoah Valley.
August 23, 2011
Unlike Kate LeComte, I had never heard of a trebuchet. Wikipedia once more to the rescue, but especially also a You Tube clip from an old Nova (PBS) episode, wherein a large siege engine (possibly similar to Warwolf?) was built and tested. Very scary.
Not perhaps as scary as some of the characters in Warwolf, a story of the darkest stripe. Several comments have been made about the amount of blood ---- certainly true, but I appreciate the fact that most of the violence occurred "off-stage." Yes, the reader sees the gruesome results of the acts of violence, but at least he or she is not subjected to the gratuitous details while they are being committed. I don't know why that makes a difference to me, but it does.
As always, Pearson's prose and characterizations are of the highest order. The darkly comic and ironic portrayal of certain aspects of American life is brutal and provoking, but not inaccurate, I believe. And, of course, it's the best novel I've ever read featuring a trebuchet.
Not perhaps as scary as some of the characters in Warwolf, a story of the darkest stripe. Several comments have been made about the amount of blood ---- certainly true, but I appreciate the fact that most of the violence occurred "off-stage." Yes, the reader sees the gruesome results of the acts of violence, but at least he or she is not subjected to the gratuitous details while they are being committed. I don't know why that makes a difference to me, but it does.
As always, Pearson's prose and characterizations are of the highest order. The darkly comic and ironic portrayal of certain aspects of American life is brutal and provoking, but not inaccurate, I believe. And, of course, it's the best novel I've ever read featuring a trebuchet.
July 26, 2011
Still miss the long, spinning sentences that were most glorious in "A Short History of a Small Place," but found this novel thoroughly enjoyable. Read it twice, because you miss so much on the first pass. Loved Leslie's character - thank you for not making him a sexual predator but still giving him a vast dark side. The culprits, especially, will stick with me. It reads just a tiny bit like a movie script. I see Kate as Jodie Foster in "The Silence of the Lambs." This book is somewhat dark, but it portrays rural life very accurately.
July 31, 2011
Although I don't read much in the detective/police procedural vein, I found this to be a lot of fun. While I'd quibble with some of the plot details, the story's engaging and populated with enough entertaining backwoods color and offbeat, lowlife characters to keep it rolling. Pearson's voice is as dry and sharply humorous as ever, and drew more than a few chuckles out of me. Highly recommended.
January 12, 2012
Murder and mayhem in rural Virginia. It's cause for celebration whenever there's a new T.R. Pearson book to fall into.
June 8, 2012
Great book, great characters, T.R. Pearson at his best..
July 17, 2013
This is the first book I've read from this author. He is an excellent writer! I hope to read all of his books.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews