Brother Wolf

Fr. Thomas Edmund Gilroy #2

by Eleanor Bourg Nicholson

For Athene Howard, the only child of renowned cultural anthropologist Charles Howard, life is an unexciting, disillusioned academic project. When she encounters a clairvoyant Dominican postulant, a stern nun, and a recusant English nobleman embarked on a quest for a feral Franciscan werewolf, the strange new world of enchantment and horror intoxicates and delights her—even as it brings to light her father’s complex past and his long-dormant relationship with the Church of Rome. Can Athene and her newfound compatriots battle against the ruthless forces of darkness that howl for the overthrow of civilization and the devouring of so many wounded souls? In this sister novel to A Bloody Habit , the incomparable Father Thomas Edmund Gilroy, O.P. returns to face occult demons, gypsy curses, possessed maidens, and tormented werewolves, accompanying a charming neo-pagan heroine in her earnest search for adventure and meaning.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Horror, Fantasy, Fiction, Gothic, Catholic

352 pages, Paperback

First published August 23, 2021

About the author

In addition to scholarly pursuits, Eleanor Bourg Nicholson occasionally strays into fiction, including her epistolary novella, The Letters of Magdalen Montague, and her Gothic novels, A Bloody Habit, Brother Wolf, and Wake of Malice. For the sake of her children, who eagerly requested a book they too could read, she wrote The Hound of the Lord, a children’s biography of St. Dominic (Ignatius Press, 2023). She is a Lay Dominican, which may partly explain the frequency with which OPs gaily trip through her writing. (She also formally apologized to the friars for throwing them into the Gothic atmosphere. Honestly, though, it makes a lot of sense.)

A former assistant executive editor for Dappled Things, she is assistant editor for the Saint Austin Review (StAR), as well as the editor of several Ignatius Critical Editions of the classics and has collaborated with other editors to provide footnotes for numerous other works. Her work has appeared in the National Catholic Register and Touchstone, as well as with First Things and The Catholic Thing.

The resident Victorian literature instructor at Homeschool Connections, Eleanor, with her husband, homeschools their five children. By night, she reads the Victorians, writes Gothic novels, and cares for small children.

Fun facts: She has an extremely low tolerance for scary books and movies. She’s still petrified of “The Speckled Band”, and won’t sleep in a room where the bed is under a vent.

Reviews

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this. I laughed a few times, teared up a few times and couldn't wait to find out what happened next the whole time.

I really liked Athene as a narrator, she's an outsider to the conflict so she provides a way for us to learn what's going on but she's inquisitive and wants to be involved so she is digging into things and there's some conflict around how involved the others will allow her to be.

Then there's the Catholic examination of werewolves and other folkloric creatures. When I was younger one of my pet projects was how to resolve completely evil vampires with free will and I never came up with a good answer, but in Nicholson's previous book she had a solid, satisfactory answer. I never put much time into pondering similar issues for werewolves but I think using them as an example of a person being ruled by disordered desires and impulses while still showing lycanthropy as something that can be redeemed was a great move and gave me a lot to think about.

I liked how the story was revealed too. Like the details of how werewolves are created and work are ambiguous. There's enough details that I can theorize but leaves me with enough questions to want to theorize. The villains' plot is similar. I've got enough of the gist of their methods and goals to know what they're going for and how they're going about it but the villains are still left shrouded in mystery without everything being spelled out.

And the book was funny, it has a similar sense of humor to A Bloody Habit where the narrator has a very deadpan commentary on absurd events. Our non-Catholic narrator's repeated comments on the oddity of these Papists were funny (and, to be fair, we Papists can be quite odd at times). Then there's this running gag where Athene thinks that one priest must hate her (for some reason) despite him always being polite with her.

One gripe was around the action scenes. I didn't go to the length of drawing maps but I'm pretty sure that one of the priests was teleporting around and I'm pretty sure that wolves don't really attack with their claws. Those are minor gripes to be fair.

Finally, I think Chrism Press sounds like a great imprint. I'm excited to see what they have coming down the pipeline and I, at least, have an appetite for fiction with a Catholic and Orthodox base. And I really hope that Nicholson is thinking of giving the same treatment to other supernatural critters.

[Stephanie Landsem · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wasn't sure what to think of the premise of this book. Werewolves and monks? But I love a good gothic novel and gave it a try. So glad I did! The voice of Athene was pure delight. You couldn't help but love her from page one. The story unfolded with all the twists and turns of a classic gothic adventure and took me along for the ride. But the best part was the writing itself -- smart and sharp, leading the reader to conclusions rather than telling, great dialogue, and dashes of humor. In every way a great read!

[Ari's library · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 🌟

Another very good book from dear Eleanor Bourg Nicholson ! Her spooky series is definitely pleasant, and I do think that it is getting spookier and spookier at each volume. This one feels darker, and has more mature themes than the previous ones (even if I maintain that the Wake of Malice is my absolute favorite). In this volume the reader will find werewolves of course, but also pagan deities (aka demons), and wizards.

I have to say that I was, once again, quite impressed by the author characterisation : in the first volume we had a conceited and very dislikable hero (in a way that almost makes one laugh), in the second volume, an absolute darling and here, in this third opus, we have our first heroine and she is nothing like them. Athene is a bit immature, lost, very sheltered, suffer from being unwanted, feels very proud of her intellect but is also quite naive and has such an overactive imagination that it is the reader has sometimes difficulty following her. If I preferred to follow the hero of Wake of Malice, I could not help but connect with Athene, admire her courage and found myself rooting for her, as charmingly frustrating as she could be.

I did not like the romantic part as much as I did in the second volume, but I liked it more than I did in the first. Also, it was, I think a bit harder to connect with some of the secoundary characters, not because of a lack of depth in them, but because they were in such a dark place that it was impossible to get to know them beyond their wounds.

All in all, another exciting adventure !

[Larry G Pryor Jr. · Rating 5 out of 5]

She did it again

For a third time Eleanor Bourg Nicholson delivers a fantastic story! I laughed, I cried (yes, really), and I loved the ending! If you’re looking for a standard horror story you won’t find it here…precious little gore but lots to think about.

[Justine Olawsky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eleanor Bourg Nicholson certainly can write Gothic thrillers like one born out of time with her own culture and era. , much like its sister novel A Bloody Habit is an immersive experience in another world that rings true on every page.

Overall, I think I enjoyed Brother Wolf even more than her previous Fr. Gilroy adventure. The heroine was plucky, the hero sufficiently brooding, and the supernatural horror well-plotted. Fr. Gilroy was a delightful as ever and the surrounding company of priests and friars was colorful.

I do wonder if my own lack of experience with this genre and with the lore surrounding werewolves made parts of this book murky to me that otherwise would have been clear. For example, I never really understood the relationship between the demon goddess, Marcus, Charles Howard, and the werewolves. I know that it was a tapestry of temptation (three wishes), madness for power (perhaps for a secret knowledge/gnosis in the case of Howard?), and bloodlust, but the backstory remained clouded to me. I was reading this book largely while on a cross-country move, so maybe the relevant information just happened to be on those pages where my eyes were more heavy than alert, but I generally do not suffer from reading comprehension issues. The whole integration of Charles Howard with the rest of the story was baffling to me. After he died, the plotting picked up, but his motivation became even more confused. What was with the notebook with the figures inside? How did a researcher and professor come by so much cash to allocate? What did that eventually have to do with his disinheritance of his daughter and the priests' journey to Rome to examine the behest made by the Lauritz Aldebrand estate to the Pontifical University of St. Thomas? I guess I wanted/needed a concluding chapter in the vein of Agatha Christie's Poirot where all the connections were spelled out, step-by-step.

Certainly a novel worth exploring. I hope more are in the works with Fr. Thomas Edmund Gilroy, O.P.

[Genevieve Paquette · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked it. The only thing that didn't work for me was the out-of-nowhere forced romance at the very end. They went from not really knowing each-other/not having had the opportunity to really talk to each other for more than a minute, and rarely about anything other than their work, to an abrupt kiss followed immediately by an even more abrupt proposal of marriage.
I know it was hinted at, in like, the vaguely way possible (she thinks about him as the hero of an epic tale, deeming him a viking-celt knight in her mind and daydreaming about... him marrying someone else. No, really. She spends more than a few idle moments "shipping" him with their companion, the novitiate nun. As for what he's thinking, all we get is that he things she's a bit silly/a pest at first and then she grows on him.) but it really did feel like it came out of nowhere and was shoehorned in.
Ok, that said, it was a fun story with marvelous writing, pretty solid characters (especially Fr. Thomas Edmund who is a delight) and an interesting theological perspective. I got kick out of different orders being tasked with different malevolent beings to deal with, the Jesuits fighting vampires, the Dominicans endeavoring to save/reform werewolves whenever possible.
I also liked that the heroine didn't convert. She might, yet, but the author didn't feel the need to push it. I also appreciated the way the author portrayed different philosophies in a, in my opinion, pretty fair and balanced way.
I'd be up for reading a sequel. Or, better yet, another sister book featuring an appearance by Father Thomas Edmund!

[Jordan · Rating 5 out of 5]

10/10. When I tried to explain the plot of this book to my friends, it sounds like a crazed fever dream when the actual story is an INCREDIBLE tale of curiosity, exploration for truth (and adventure), and our heroine finding her voice. I am in love with this author’s style of writing so much so that I have already ordered the companion novel to this one. It has become increasingly rare for me to find a stand-alone tome that I recommend so highly and yet, here we are. Read it!!

[F. C. · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fine gothic novel, with Dominicans

Father Thomas Edmund Gilroy, OP, is a happy man. A Dominican priest, he is a scholar, a preacher, and a man all too aware of the active role the Evil One can play in the world.

Athene Howard, our protagonist, is less satisfied with her place in the world. Single and in her early twenties, she has been her ungrateful father’s secretary and aide for all of her adult life, organizing his academic papers and notes and correspondence, while he ignores or snipes at her. Her father, Doctor Charles Howard, is a professor at the Université de Paris, a specialist in comparative mythology known for his use of the new theory of psychology to explain (and explain away) many of the myths and religions of antiquity.

Athene is intelligent and educated— she speaks and reads multiple languages, is proficient in Latin and Greek, takes shorthand, and knows her father’s field almost as well as he does. She shares his agnosticism, because her only knowledge of faith comes from his.

She and her father’s lives are initially thrown into confusion when they meet some fellow travelers on the ship carrying them back to France after Dr. Howard completed a speaking tour in the U.S. She is first struck by the conversation she overhears between a striking man and a strange, beautiful woman, who seems somehow afflicted. After making up romantic— and unlikely— tales in her mind about them, she comes to learn that the truth is far stranger than she imagined.

The young woman, called both Isabel and Sr. Magdalene, is indeed somehow strangely afflicted. She has spent some years in a convent, and is accompanied by a Dominican sister, Sister Agatha, who herself has some sort of old relationship with Dr. Howard. The gentleman they’re traveling with is Sir Simon, tall, strong, and capable, whose relationship with the two women is unclear.

Isabel’s father is the source of his daughter’s affliction, for he has indeed been fully brought under the sway of a demon from hell. He is the ultimate manipulator, with the power to appear in people’s dreams to tempt and threaten. As a manipulator, he works to bring not merely individuals but governments to destruction, using his wealth behind the scenes in the decades before the Great War.

And Isabel is a twin— it’s to succor her brother that she is returning to Europe. For her brother is indeed a shape changer, one who, when he allows himself to be tempted to do evil, changes to wolf shape… and kills.

It will take the wisdom of Fr Thomas Edmund, the strength of Sir XXX, and Athene’s knowledge and open heart to survive the risks ahead.

Highly recommended.

[german · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite books

I finally came to reading this after a friend (with whom I share my love for all things gothic) pestered me about picking it up for months (that is what usually takes me to open a work of fiction).

I’m so grateful I did. I found healing and freedom and meaning… and I’m really a different person from when I started. It really does feel like I just went on a journey with this wonderful crew and came back changed

While you might not come fully changed as I did, it does promise a good few hours of fun (and surprisingly a lot of learning) in what is now, most likely, my favorite work of fiction not penned by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Just bought myself A Bloody Habit and can’t wait to delve deeper into it

The prose is splendid. The plot and world-building are also magnificent (as a gothic-lover I have read much and this is most likely the most accurate werewolf novel out there. Granted the power of the antagonist is exaggerated for fiction’s sake… but no other work I know of comes this close to accuracy).

I hope this little gem is found by the wider public. For now, I hope it keeps changing lives. It did mine

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great gothic horror story, told through the realities of Catholic spirituality. I appreciated the author's take on lycanthropy, and it made me look inward at my own beasts with a more critical eye. (It also inspired me go to confession, which is always a good thing.) Two complaints - I wish we had seen a slightly stronger attraction from Sir Simon for Athene, and I would like to know more about the hero of the series, Fr. Thomas Edmund Gilroy. I hope we will get to know him better in the next book. (Hint to the author - please write another book!)

[Richard Hannay · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a delightful read.
Full disclosure: me, I love a gothic novel with a sassy damsel in distress. Throw in some werewolves and I'm in. Here, Athene is funny and clever, the plot is satisfyingly convoluted and the enemy is, ...well, the Enemy. The authoress lacks some technique: she certainly knows how to cross her t's but many i's remain resolutely un-dotted. She shows great promise and I really look forward to a sequel.

[Arvilla]

What I will give this book is that it reads like Gothic literature. However, that could be why it just didn't do it for me. People who are lovers of that style may enjoy this book more. However, beyond that, much of the ending felt unearned. Although I did enjoy the concept of Franciscans dealing with werewolves, I expected a bit more of that throughout the novel, not that there wasn't a decent amount of it finally in the climax of the story. I wish I liked this book more than I did.

[Jared Schmitz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Actual rating 3.5 stars. This book was such a mixed bag. Absolutely wonderful character voice, frequently beautiful prose, but so many flaws--too many characters, a very draggy middle, the heroine lacking agency, and lot of seemingly random things happening are just the most egregious. It feels like a second draft that needed to be brought to a third or fourth before publication.

[untitled lullaby · Rating 1 out of 5]

The writing is good but there’s some weird anti Romani things in here. Also looked up the author and there’s a long video of “books your children shouldn’t read” one of them being to kill a mockingbird. And one of the reasons why the kid couldn’t read it is because “she doesn’t know the facts of life yet.” Well I can name one book my children won’t be reading and it’s this one.

[Ursi Engebretsen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is fantastic (hence my staying up until 1:30 AM to finish it). It's like a mashup of Dracula and Father Brown, with werewolves instead of vampires and a healthy dose of solid Thomistic theology. Highly recommend (although it's really too scary to read at bedtime 😅)!

[Clare White · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book had my stomach in knots, and my mind running wild deep into the night! With scenes that make Hitchcock feel tame and Rowling seem predictable - yet written with an unapologetically Catholic voice - it is not for the faint of heart! My highest recommendations!

[Karen Ullo · Rating 5 out of 5]

A phenomenal Gothic romp filled with humor and spiritual insight. Must read!

[Jayne de Sales · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was DELICIOUS!

[creavey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyable

I love the writing style. The story was enjoyable. I've read the authors other book as well and liked it too.

[Jules (Wooldridge) Gjesvold · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely incredible. Couldn’t put it down. Broke my pen underlining things emphatically. Gazillion stars out of five

[Nate Wolf · Rating 4 out of 5]

it took me a minute to get through this (i mostly read it in class) but i liked it! i think werewolves are super interested and while i’m not religious i am obsessed with christian imagery and religion itself! the beginning was a bit slow to me and i almost dropped it at first, but i’m glad i stuck with it. it’s marked as horror, but personally i didn’t find it very scary. i’d like to read it again eventually!

[Jordan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reviewed along with the other two books in the series (so far) for Catholic World Report here.

[Daisy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Re-read. I love this book. I love Athene as narrator. I love Athene & Sir Simon together. I want to write fan-fic sequels.
6/20/24: Close re-read. I enjoy the book just as much, if not more, each time I read it.

[Maggie Rosario · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely fantastic! This novel has a power to terrify in one moment, leave you laughing uncontrollably the next, and finally leave you with bittersweet tears by the end.

If you do not love the Gothic before this novel, you will be completely changed by the end!