Wolf's Trap

Wolf Cycle / Nick Lupo #1

by W.D. Gagliani

The Nick Lupo Series Book One.
Horror, Thriller, Crime/Suspense, and Urban Fantasy combine for one explosive mix! Urban Fantasy fans who crave edgy, graphic horror elements especially will want to take note of this series.

It takes a beast to catch a killer!

Nick Lupo is a good cop--with the instincts of a great detective... or maybe a wolf. Lupo has a lot in common with wolves, which is only natural considering he's a werewolf. He's battled the creature inside him for years, but now there's another predator in the area. A bloodthirsty serial killer is leaving a gruesome trail of victims, and it's up to Lupo to track him down and stop the slaughter. Will Lupo dare to unleash one beast to stop another?

Wolf's Trap is the Bram Stoker Award-nominated first book of the savage series of horror/thrillers about Nick Lupo, the werewolf/cop. These "North Woods Noirs" are set mostly in the wilds of Northern Wisconsin, where werewolf legends abound and the moon paints the treetops silver. adult content.

Other books in the series are Wolf's Gambit, Wolf's Bluff, and Wolf's Edge. Wolf's Cut is coming in 2014 .

Genres: Horror, Werewolves, Urban Fantasy, Paranormal, Fiction, Mystery, Fantasy

373 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2003

About the author

W.D. Gagliani (Milwaukee, WI) is an American author of Italian descent. His work has spanned the horror, thriller, mystery and adventure fields in fiction, and he has written numerous book reviews, articles, and interviews in nonfiction.

His novels include Wolf's Trap, Wolf's Gambit, Wolf's Bluff, Wolf's Edge, Wolf's Cut, Wolf's Blind, and the novella Wolf's Deal (the Nick Lupo series), plus the novels The Judas Hit and Savage Nights, the collection Shadowplays, and (with David Benton) the novel Killer Lake (nominated for the Splatterpunk Award), the mini-collection Mysteries & Mayhem, and (as A.G. Kent) I was a Seventh Grade Monster Hunter. The team of Benton & Gagliani was commissioned to play in the Vampire Dreams universe with their tale "Voracious in Vegas," which appeared as part of the now-defunt Kindle Worlds. On his own, Gagliani has also written novellas such as The Great Belzoni and the Gait of Anubis (original and expanded versions).

His short fiction (much of which appears in Shadowplays) has won the 1999 Darrell Award of the Memphis Science Fiction Association ("Until Hell Calls Our Names"), several 2nd and 3rd Place prizes in the Science Fiction Writers Of Earth annual contests, and garnered six Honorable Mentions in The Year's Best Fantasy & Horror annual collections. In addition, his novel Wolf's Trap (first published by Yard Dog Press) was a Finalist for the 2004 Bram Stoker Award for outstanding achievement in a first novel.

Gagliani is also the author of numerous book reviews, articles, interviews, and short stories published in anthologies such as Robert Bloch's Psychos, More Monsters from Memphis, The Midnighters Club, Fateful Fathoms, Undead Tales, and more, and (with co-writer David Benton) Dark Passions: Hot Blood 13, The X-Files: Trust No One, SNAFU, SNAFU: Wolves at the Door, Splatterpunk Zine, Splatterpunk: Fighting Back, Splatterpunk: Past Indiscretions, and more, as well as other publications and books such as Cemetery Dance, Horror World, Bare Bones and Best of Bare Bones, The Scream Factory and Best of the Scream Factory, Chizine, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, The Writer magazine, the books THRILLERS: The 100 Must Reads and ON WRITING HORROR, and many more.

Gagliani is an active member of the Horror Writers Association (HWA), the International Thriller Writers (ITW), and the Authors Guild.

Series:
* Wolf Cycle

Reviews

[Evan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Mediocre werewolf fiction

I wanted to read a story with a werewolf protagonist that wasn't paranormal romance. Instead this book is more akin to the turgid, sleazy, cop versus psycho killer genre films of the 80s and 90s, with little of the word count actually devoted to the werewolf element.
This story feels dated, all the female characters are essentially one dimensional victims or sexual objects, most are figuratively (and in one case literally) fridged to motivate the protagonist and antagonist.
A read through of How Not To Write A Novel, an editor and a second draft may have salvaged something interesting from this, but I can't recommend this if you're looking for something with a werewolf protagonist as it really is lost amongst the serial killer nonsense.

[Carl Alves · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Wolf’s Trap, Nick Lupo is a homicide detective and a werewolf, two things that one don’t necessarily go together, but certainly an interesting combination. As you might expect, Nick has a tortured past. Some of the things he did continue to haunt him as he adjusts to his dual nature. Most notably of the things that haunt him is inadvertently killing Caroline Stewart while in wolf form when he was college. She was both his professor and lover. Now, years later, her brother, Martin, a crazed serial killer, is stalking Nick in a quest to avenge his sister. In reality, he’s so demented that revenge is only a small part of his deal. He starts off by killing Nick’s neighbor and sending him messages, then continues to kill those around Nick.

I liked the chase between Lupo and the killer. It was a two-sided chase as Lupo tries to hunt down and arrest or kill Martin, while Martin is doing his best to implement psychological warfare on the werewolf/detective. Lupo is a well-developed character with lots of nuances. There was a duality to his character as he straddled two worlds. The one aspect of the novel that I didn’t like was that Martin and some of the other villain characters weren’t as well-developed and lacked believability. There was good action, a well-developed story line, and good drama. For horror fans, this novel is well-worth reading, and I look forward to reading more Nick Lupo stories in the future.
Carl Alves - author of Blood Street

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A different perspective of a werewolf tale. Detective Dominic (Nick) Lupo on the hunt for a fiendish serial killer, puts his natural instincts to work in apprehending him, Martin Stewart . Martin, with his looks and charm has enticed all his victims into a false sense of security, enabling him to inflict his horrific actions upon his victims. Lupo, haunted from his demons, doesn't know he is on Martin's list. The tale draws the reader into a nightmare of the hunter and hunted, but leaves the reader to decide who is the hunter and hunted. Fast paced lethal adventure with teeth that will inflict the reader until the end. This could be a movie if, as usual, they do the book justice. Jump into this with eyes wide open. Martin could be lurking just outside your window.

[Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first in his Nick Lupo ( hmmm, last name just a coincidence? :) series, with the cop/werewolf. I enjoyed the "relationship" that the author had with Nick and the creature. Nick working on being able to control the creature after the change. With a good storyline of revenge against Nick, by someone that knows his secret?
Will look for the others in this entertaining series.

[Ije the Devourer of Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this. It is the first time I am reading anything by this author. Normally the werewolf books I read are either romantic or urban fantasy or a mixture of both. It was great to read something different.

This story is both a murder mystery and a horror story. Although it had a lot of violence and gore I thought it was a good story, gripping with enough tension, building up to a satisfying conclusion.

I really enjoy murder mysteries especially those with unforseen twists and turns and lots of suspense. In this story Nick Lupo has to find a serial killer who is leaving a blood thirsty trail of bodies behind him. Nick has one advantage to help him track this beast, he himself is a beast - a werewolf.

The suspense in the story comes from being able to see the killer's mind and to understand his warped and scary thinking. The story also shows Nick struggling to keep hold of the beast inside him and yet using the nature of the beast to help him solve the crime. The way he does this and yet needs to hide this part of himself adds to the suspense.

The horror comes from the way the killer murders people and the fact that we get to see him planning and executing the murders as well as storing the bodies. This is incredibly violent and frightening because it is the kind of thinking behind some of the famous serial killers that we know of today. The story thus becomes scary because although the murders are fictional they are also realistically possible.

It is a really good story with just the right amount of suspense to keep me hooked and on edge. I thought it had a very slow build up but this was needed in order for the reader to really understand who Nick Lupo is and to understand how he came to be a werewolf. I think this kind of slow build also helps set the scene for the series. I intend to read the rest of the series because the story ends with some kind of progression as Nick finds himself closer to the beast inside.

Yes - definitely hooked on this one and happy to read some more about Detective Lupo.

[Rob Twinem · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nick Lupo is a cop and a werewolf and in Wolf's Trap he must bring to justice a demented, sexually depraved monster Martin Stewart. The sexual imagery in this book is important to try to understand Stewart and the disturbed mind of an individual who was molested and abused by his father. I love the way this book is told in the first person by each character as they appear and this has the effect of giving a different perspective on the shape of the book and the way the characters develop. What makes the story a winner is the way the author combines the life of Nick Lupo the cop with the werewolf that lives within him and how he manages to control the beast and the urge to change. "The creature stalks the interloper tree by tree, following his trail in the cold woods and preparing for a fight. Riding along, his awareness greater than it has ever been, is Nick Lupo, who finds it easier to let the Creature's instinct take control than attempting to give it direction. But he has learned that his will can influence, the Creature, defying instinct and making the animal more subservient. Part of his brain is occupied still trying to understand why the Change came earlier, but the rest is tasting all the Creature's senses and learning to enjoy the steady stream of information, the cold breeze fluffing the hair on his back, the prickliness of pine needles under his pads, the pungent scent of the other wolf's urine, and the night sounds that seem to quiet at his passing"......

As a thriller and horror story this is an excellent read, and I look forward to reading the further adventures of Nick Lupo, maverick cop and misunderstood werewolf!

[Laurie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nick Lupo is a homicide detective. Bitten when he was a boy by a werewolf, Nick has always tried to restrain his beast; it is a constant battle. He worries that he will be forced into a change, and thus reveal his carefully guarded secret. He has tried for years to understand and control his condition but the results of his efforts have been inconsistent, usually failing.

For years, Nick has led a solitary existence, ever since he accidentally killed his first love, Caroline. When an unlikely friendship develops between Nick and a vivacious call girl, he becomes cautiously optimistic that perhaps this time he can control his inner beast.

When Nick’s friend is viciously murdered, he is overwhelmed by grief and guilt. Somebody from his past wants Nick dead – eventually. But first, he aims to make him suffer.

This story is told from Nick’s perspective, and I enjoyed the way in which it unfolded. It jumps back and forth between the past and the present several times but I found it easy to follow, and thought both story lines were told quite well. While I could have done without some of the redundancy regarding Nick’s tremendous burden of guilt, I actually enjoyed the second half of the book even more than the first; the clicks to flip the pages on my kindle got faster, always a sure sign of a good book for me. A warning, though, this book is graphically gruesome in some places. I enjoy well-scripted horror, always have. This is the best book of its kind I have read in a while.

[Deviancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Have you wondered what Silence of the Lambs would have been like if Jodi Foster was a werewolf? Well I'm sure most haven't, but they'll get the answer to the question regardess if they read Wolf's Trap. Wolf's Trap has the psychological thriller elements that Red Dragon and Silence of the Lambs have, but it also has one bad ass werewolf on the hunt for the serial killer.

The characters aren't the greatest, they could have used more depth. But the overall story makes that one flaw seem less detrimental, thankfully. The story has plenty of wicked violence, good ol fashioned scary moments, and even depraved sex acts.

What more can you ask for?

[Kurt Criscione · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a lot of fun and we have a LOT of my favourite elements in stories... usually in seperate stories but here its all together. We have a Cop being stalked by a serial killer and that cop just happens to be a werewolf.

Hell Yeah.

I have some issues with the timing of the piece, in the end swaths of hours go by in such a way that it feels like the ending takes place over two full days when really most of it is just a single a night, just the use of language and the "side effects" of the beast, the change is always followed by hours of sleep.

[Maria · Rating 4 out of 5]

First, if you have any kind of issues with sexual assault and child molestation, this isn't your read. Second, it started slow and I wasn't quite sure if it was worth taking the scenic route but hot damn if it wasn't worth it! Man, I haven't read a good old-fashioned werewolf book in a minute. I LOVED IT. It gave my twisted little heart all the slash it up Gore I was looking for. I've already got the next on my list.

[AJ Garrett · Rating 4 out of 5]

This author came as a recommendation from author John Everson. A different title was initially recommended but I decided to start at the beginning. I liked the pace of the story and the development of its characters. The story was very well written and I look forward to reading the remainder of your library.- A.J.

[Roxie Gallinger · Rating 5 out of 5]

First time reader of this author and am impressed with the writing of this book about Nick Lupo, who is a cop/werewolf. ..trying to keep is secret after being bitten by his friend..now as a cop being hunted by his former ex girlfriends brother for the accidental killing of his sister..very good read

[Kevin Lucia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Giving it a 4, because I can't give it a 3 & 1/2. Decent enough story. A few leaps in logic, and sometimes the prose and dialogue was clunky. Serviceable enough story, however. Full review coming soon...

[Jude Felton · Rating 4 out of 5]

A most enjoyable Werewolf/Crime thriller. Never went where I expected it to, and dealt with the subject of lycanthropy in a subtle yet well thought out manner.

[Pike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though I enjoyed the hero (I've got a soft spot for werewolves), the villian was outstanding!

[Deb Omnivorous Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a surprisingly satisfying, but quite slow read. A Bram Stoker award finalist I expected more horror - there certainly was some gory stuff, but maybe I have become too horror resilient, it did not really shock.

We have two main characters who converge, the first is Nick Lupo, a policeman with a checkered history. In one of the black checks is the fact that as a child he was bitten by a German shepherd appearing dog and is now a werewolf. At first reading about him I found this quite bizarre, he works as a cop, he must have gone to a police academy and his form of werewolf-ism is much more traditional than some of the moderns YA, romcom style descriptions. In many 'ware' books these days being a ware/shifter seems no more inconvenient than getting your period, but Lupo is more of the older tradition where he cannot control the change, does destroy things around him and is dangerous when a wolf. Lupo's life and challenges are very well thought out and very well written, many of them with a slow reveal as the book progresses.

The second main character is Martin Stewart, a psychopath who escaped a mental facility and who has a personal grudge against Lupo, of which Lupo is entirely unaware. Martin has another advantage, he possesses information about Lupo from the only source who knew about it including his weaknesses. Martin is the source of most of the gory in this book, rather than the werewolf and there is a creative level of gore associated with his part of the plot. There is some outback, redneck nastiness toward the end of the book too.

The writing is good and though there is a lot of attention to detail and descriptive writing that really sets the scenes it is essentially a plot and character driven book which I was just in the mood for.

[Aaron · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel was the third selection in a Kindle book I purchased for $3.99. The book was titled "Tomes of Terror" and contained ten horror novels at a discounted price.

When I saw that this novel was the first novel in an ongoing series, I almost skipped it and moved on to the fourth book instead. I am glad that I did not.

And I'll be honest . . . this book is trash. Straight trash. Gratuitously violent and gory, filled to the brim with trigger warning content (including sexual assault of children), and somewhat cheesy in its execution (your werewolf protagonist is named Lupo? I mean, come on!). But it's engaging . . . engaging enough, at least, to warrant checking out the next couple of novels in the series.

This novel is certainly flawed in the way that most trashy horror novels are, but Gagliani has created a compelling protagonist and the sort of over-complicated plot that the best pulp novels I can come up with thrived. There's a sickening villain and strikingly (not to mention surprising) literary shifts in points of view. I enjoyed this. Four stars might be a bit generous, but I can't recall enjoying a werewolf novel this much in decades.

[Shelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

It takes a beast to catch a beast.

Nick Lupo is a good cop -- a bit of a renegade at times, with the instincts of a great detective... or maybe a wolf. Lupo has a lot in common with wolves, which is only natural considering he’s a werewolf. He’s battled the creature inside him for years, but now there’s another predator in the area. A bloodthirsty serial killer is leaving a trail of victims, and it’s up to Lupo to track him down and stop the slaughter. Will Lupo dare to unleash one beast to stop another?

[Preston Dane · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was definitely A LOT darker than I expected from a werewolf novel but I absolutely loved it. Endings are hard to nail, so I have to say this one disappointed me a little, in that it wrapped up pretty quick but it was still very good. I wasn’t sure what to think when it kinda revealed the serial killer & his reasoning so early but I loved the incorporation on his point of view, and it just really worked! (and boy was he completely messed up) looking forward to reading the next book

[Alexis Duckett · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was decently written. The characters were well written and all had their own personalities. Loved the mostly detailed back stories into them. I think too much of this was more romance and sex. You can tell that’s where most of the effort went into instead of into the rest of book ending with a disappointing and somewhat blah ending.

[Ella Rose · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit hard to get into at first, but entertaining once it picks up. The blend of old and new world mythology helped revitalize the classic werewolf story, while keeping it rooted in familiar territory.

[carl e. james · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really good new take on an old story

Love thus first book in the series. The supernatural werewolf elements were blended well with the murder thriller elements. Can't wait to read more Nick Pull adventures.

[Tegan Faust · Rating 4 out of 5]

Liked it but wouldn't reread.

[Hannah]

DNF

[David Veith · Rating 3 out of 5]

(3.0) Overall ok read. Writing a bit choppy at times though, sometimes you feel like you missed something because of it. I even went back over a couple of pages and something was just off. Story mostly good though, for what it was. Not always consistent with its characters personality or traits. Also never really describes the wolf well, but what it does sounds like a large wolf, however the cover shows something else, so not sure on that. Still a good read though, just not anything special. Would be interesting to read the rest of the series though, as the villain in this one was a part of his past, and how things end in this one could make future books possibly interesting I guess.

[William M. · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 AND 1/2 STARS

The first two-thirds of this book had some good twists and I wasn't sure where it would go, but ultimately it ended up as I had imagined. This was very fast-paced and I really got into the characters and the author's refreshing spin on the lycanthrope mythos. Not a fan of the main character's name being Lupo or the rushed ending, but I would not hesitate to recommend this book to any werewolf fans. For me, it had the right amount of suspense, action, gore, and sex. I just would have dropped the hillbilly goons from the last third and had Martin on his own.

One question I had for the author -- I think it's a mistake in the book -- when Nick was a boy and got a silver necklace from his mother as a gift on Christmas, how did it burn his neck and not his hands first? Did he put on his necklace with gloves? -- kidding, of course.

[Becky · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't know if it is because I watch way too many detective/crime shows but I am losing attention on this story about an antisocial cop who happens to be a wolf, bitten as a child - still coping with the change 20-ish years later as a teenager does with puberty AND a serial killer who is out to pay back our main character for a wrong (only in his mind) done.

the plot didn't carry much futher than that.

serial killer kills a few more people, enlists the aid of others, and finally is face to face with the object of his obsession.

[Silence Welder · Rating 3 out of 5]

A review on the back of this book said that it was fun to read and I agree with that.

The way in which the werewolf changes was good and the protagonist's grapple with his human and wolf nature was interesting.

This book was best when it was describing guns and ammo. Those passages seemed to shine with authenticity.

I'm hovering between two and three stars out of five for this one. I give it three for fun.

[Max Ostrovsky · Rating 1 out of 5]

I like werewolves. I really do. Loved them since the fourth grade.
With every phrase, every sentence, every paragraph, every chapter, I could see all the derivative drivel and the many ways this story could have been improved on - and most importantly (or just importantly) the writing style.
The story itself was tolerable. It was the writing that kept throwing me off. I wish I could say it was a YA novel, but it wasn't. It was targeting adult readers.
I know. I'm an arrogant elitist.

[Cecelia]

For me it started out really really awfull but the last half of the book was exciting and engaging and I very much enjoyed it. Now if only that first part could have been as good I would have easily given it a five star rating.