What do you think?
Rate this book
Maneater
In recent years there have been numerous reported sightings of large felines supposedly living and breeding in remote areas of our countryside. So far none has been shot or trapped and their elusiveness is still a mystery. Farm livestock has been attacked but there is always the lurking fear that one day there could be a human victim—for man-eating leopards have preyed upon remote villages in Africa and India for centuries…
Gordon Hall is a retired professional hunter from South Africa now living in the Welsh borderlands. When a spate of attacks on sheep and domestic animals begins, he recognizes the marks on the carcasses as being those of a large feline.
A gamekeeper takes a shot at a Big Cat prowling in his woods but only succeeds in wounding it. Unable to catch rabbits and deer, the creature then turns its attention to humans…
Hall is called upon to hunt down the vicious killer when all other methods have failed. A rural community lives in terror, not knowing when this Big Cat will strike again…
Gordon Hall is a retired professional hunter from South Africa now living in the Welsh borderlands. When a spate of attacks on sheep and domestic animals begins, he recognizes the marks on the carcasses as being those of a large feline.
A gamekeeper takes a shot at a Big Cat prowling in his woods but only succeeds in wounding it. Unable to catch rabbits and deer, the creature then turns its attention to humans…
Hall is called upon to hunt down the vicious killer when all other methods have failed. A rural community lives in terror, not knowing when this Big Cat will strike again…
- GenresHorror
185 pages, Hardcover
First published May 1, 2009
71 people want to read
About the author
Guy N. Smith
175 books298 followersI was born on November 21, 1939, in the small village of Hopwas, near Tamworth, Staffordshire, England. My mother was a pre-war historical novelist (E. M. Weale) and she always encouraged me to write.
I was first published at the age of 12 in The Tettenhall Observer, a local weekly newspaper. Between 1952-57 I wrote 56 stories for them, many serialized. In 1990 I collated these into a book entitled Fifty Tales from the Fifties.
My father was a dedicated bank manager and I was destined for banking from birth. I accepted it but never found it very interesting. During the early years when I was working in Birmingham, I spent most of my lunch hours in the Birmingham gun quarter. I would have loved to have served an apprenticeship in the gun trade but my father would not hear of it.
Shooting (hunting) was my first love, and all my spare time was spent in this way. In 1961 I designed and made a 12-bore shotgun, intending to follow it up with six more, but I did not have the money to do this. I still use the Guy N. Smith short-barrelled magnum. During 1960-67 I operated a small shotgun cartridge loading business but this finished when my components suppliers closed down and I could no longer obtain components at competitive prices.
My writing in those days only concerned shooting. I wrote regularly for most of the sporting magazines, interspersed with fiction for such magazines as the legendary London Mystery Selection, a quarterly anthology for which I contributed 18 stories between 1972-82.
In 1972 I launched my second hand bookselling business which eventually became Black Hill Books. Originally my intention was to concentrate on this and maybe build it up to a full-time business which would enable me to leave banking. Although we still have this business, writing came along and this proved to be the vehicle which gave me my freedom.
I wrote a horror novel for the New English Library in 1974 entitled Werewolf by Moonlight. This was followed by a couple more, but it was Night of the Crabs in 1976 which really launched me as a writer. It was a bestseller, spawning five sequels, and was followed by another 60 or so horror novels through to the mid-1990's. Amicus bought the film rights to Crabs in 1976 and this gave me the chance to leave banking and by my own place, including my shoot, on the Black Hill.
The Guy N. Smith Fan Club was formed in 1990 and still has an active membership. We hold a convention every year at my home which is always well attended.
Around this time I became Poland's best-selling author. Phantom Press published two GNS books each month, mostly with print runs of around 100,000.
I have written much, much more than just horror; crime and mystery (as Gavin Newman), and children's animal novels (as Jonathan Guy). I have written a dozen or so shooting and countryside books, a book on Writing Horror Fiction (A. & C. Black). In 1997 my first full length western novel, The Pony Riders was published by Pinnacle in the States.
With 100-plus books to my credit, I was looking for new challenges. In 1999 I formed my own publishing company and began to publish my own books. They did rather well and gave me a lot of satisfaction. We plan to publish one or two every year.
Still regretting that I had not served an apprenticeship in the gun trade, the best job of my life dropped into my lap in 1999 when I was offered the post of Gun Editor of The Countryman's Weekly, a weekly magazine which covers all field sports. This entails my writing five illustrated feature articles a week on guns, cartridges, deer stalking, big game hunting etc.
Alongside this we have expanded our mail order second hand crime fiction business, still publish a few books, and I find as much time as possible for shooting.
Jean, my wife, helps with the business. Our four children, Rowan, Tara, Gavin and Angus have all moved away from home but they visit on a regular basis.
I would not want to live anywhere other than m
I was first published at the age of 12 in The Tettenhall Observer, a local weekly newspaper. Between 1952-57 I wrote 56 stories for them, many serialized. In 1990 I collated these into a book entitled Fifty Tales from the Fifties.
My father was a dedicated bank manager and I was destined for banking from birth. I accepted it but never found it very interesting. During the early years when I was working in Birmingham, I spent most of my lunch hours in the Birmingham gun quarter. I would have loved to have served an apprenticeship in the gun trade but my father would not hear of it.
Shooting (hunting) was my first love, and all my spare time was spent in this way. In 1961 I designed and made a 12-bore shotgun, intending to follow it up with six more, but I did not have the money to do this. I still use the Guy N. Smith short-barrelled magnum. During 1960-67 I operated a small shotgun cartridge loading business but this finished when my components suppliers closed down and I could no longer obtain components at competitive prices.
My writing in those days only concerned shooting. I wrote regularly for most of the sporting magazines, interspersed with fiction for such magazines as the legendary London Mystery Selection, a quarterly anthology for which I contributed 18 stories between 1972-82.
In 1972 I launched my second hand bookselling business which eventually became Black Hill Books. Originally my intention was to concentrate on this and maybe build it up to a full-time business which would enable me to leave banking. Although we still have this business, writing came along and this proved to be the vehicle which gave me my freedom.
I wrote a horror novel for the New English Library in 1974 entitled Werewolf by Moonlight. This was followed by a couple more, but it was Night of the Crabs in 1976 which really launched me as a writer. It was a bestseller, spawning five sequels, and was followed by another 60 or so horror novels through to the mid-1990's. Amicus bought the film rights to Crabs in 1976 and this gave me the chance to leave banking and by my own place, including my shoot, on the Black Hill.
The Guy N. Smith Fan Club was formed in 1990 and still has an active membership. We hold a convention every year at my home which is always well attended.
Around this time I became Poland's best-selling author. Phantom Press published two GNS books each month, mostly with print runs of around 100,000.
I have written much, much more than just horror; crime and mystery (as Gavin Newman), and children's animal novels (as Jonathan Guy). I have written a dozen or so shooting and countryside books, a book on Writing Horror Fiction (A. & C. Black). In 1997 my first full length western novel, The Pony Riders was published by Pinnacle in the States.
With 100-plus books to my credit, I was looking for new challenges. In 1999 I formed my own publishing company and began to publish my own books. They did rather well and gave me a lot of satisfaction. We plan to publish one or two every year.
Still regretting that I had not served an apprenticeship in the gun trade, the best job of my life dropped into my lap in 1999 when I was offered the post of Gun Editor of The Countryman's Weekly, a weekly magazine which covers all field sports. This entails my writing five illustrated feature articles a week on guns, cartridges, deer stalking, big game hunting etc.
Alongside this we have expanded our mail order second hand crime fiction business, still publish a few books, and I find as much time as possible for shooting.
Jean, my wife, helps with the business. Our four children, Rowan, Tara, Gavin and Angus have all moved away from home but they visit on a regular basis.
I would not want to live anywhere other than m
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
September 11, 2019
Set in the Welsh countryside, with a small cast of characters; Maneater melds the horror and thriller genres seamlessly. Retired professional large game hunter Gordon Hall is tasked with tracking a rather large male leopard. Ordinarily in this part of the country, the animal would be left to wonder in the wild. However this creature has gone from hunting animals, to preying on humans.
May 17, 2012
Well I must say, this is quite possibly the single worst book I have ever read! But conversely, I thoroughly enjoyed reading it, because it actually made me laugh out loud, at one very memorable passage uproariously!
The premise is an ideal one for me - leopard on the loose in British countryside - daft gamekeeper type wounds it - it turns maneater. I love stuff like that.
To be fair, the leopard attacks are written well. The tension is palpable, and the episodes are very exciting, if gratuitous with gore, and choice of victim. (The very first fatal attack is a shocker, and needlessly so.)My theory is that this Guy N. Smith cove gets caught up in the flow and excitement of the attacks, and forgets that he is trying to be a writer. When that happens, he almost could be one.
All the other writing is just diabolical. He can't stop himself pushing his double-pronged agenda: a) guns are ace, and b) women are crap.
None of the "characters" are well written, and practically all the dialogue is pants. Inner monologues are unbelievably inappropriate and he uses the word "opined". Bad, bad idea.
Phrases like "from whence it came" abound, characters say "Hey!" a lot before noticing something out of the ordinary, and leopards have "glowing orbs" instead of eyes, an insatiable desire for vengeance and a facility for "disbelief". As in "It watched in disbelief, not understanding the scene which unfolded before it."
The passage which made me laugh fit to wet 'em, was the part where a demented animal rights activist sets herself on fire with a petrol bomb. Doesn't sound funny does it? It shouldn't be either, it should be horrific, and make you wince, or throw up. But Guy N. Smith displays a dazzling talent for making most situations laughable.
It was only 185 pages, so I stuck with it to the end, because honestly, I could hardly believe something this chronic could have been published.
Well done sir, your hilarious book cheered me up on a grey day. :)
The premise is an ideal one for me - leopard on the loose in British countryside - daft gamekeeper type wounds it - it turns maneater. I love stuff like that.
To be fair, the leopard attacks are written well. The tension is palpable, and the episodes are very exciting, if gratuitous with gore, and choice of victim. (The very first fatal attack is a shocker, and needlessly so.)My theory is that this Guy N. Smith cove gets caught up in the flow and excitement of the attacks, and forgets that he is trying to be a writer. When that happens, he almost could be one.
All the other writing is just diabolical. He can't stop himself pushing his double-pronged agenda: a) guns are ace, and b) women are crap.
None of the "characters" are well written, and practically all the dialogue is pants. Inner monologues are unbelievably inappropriate and he uses the word "opined". Bad, bad idea.
Phrases like "from whence it came" abound, characters say "Hey!" a lot before noticing something out of the ordinary, and leopards have "glowing orbs" instead of eyes, an insatiable desire for vengeance and a facility for "disbelief". As in "It watched in disbelief, not understanding the scene which unfolded before it."
The passage which made me laugh fit to wet 'em, was the part where a demented animal rights activist sets herself on fire with a petrol bomb. Doesn't sound funny does it? It shouldn't be either, it should be horrific, and make you wince, or throw up. But Guy N. Smith displays a dazzling talent for making most situations laughable.
It was only 185 pages, so I stuck with it to the end, because honestly, I could hardly believe something this chronic could have been published.
Well done sir, your hilarious book cheered me up on a grey day. :)
August 6, 2009
First published in hardback by Severn House Publishers, Guy N Smith continues to add to an illustrious career as a prolific horror author with his novel ‘Maneater’. Beautifully presented in a sleeved hardback edition, the novel is already seen as an essential addition to Smith’s glorious back catalogue.
Set within the rural area of the Shropshire and Welsh border, just up from the village of Llanadevy; the tale follows on in a strange fashion from Smith’s early ‘Werewolf’ trilogy (‘Werewolf by Moonlight’, ‘Return of the Werewolf’ and ‘The Son of the Werewolf’). Although this new tale is set a number of years after the horrific events that beset the village and surrounding farmland, Smith still gives a brief nod towards his old but obviously not forgotten characters of the past.
What undoubtedly links the novels together the most is the inclusion of the principal character of Gordon Hall. Although time has aged the now ex-reporter, Hall still gives off his undeniable charm and charisma. After the conclusion to ‘The Son of the Werewolf’, we learn that Hall has spent a number of years in South Africa as a professional hunter. During this time he honed his skills at tracking, hunting and killing large wild animals. Since then and the tragic death of his wife Diana, Hall has moved back to where he felt was truly his home; the rural landscape that surrounds the Black Hill.
The tale gets underway when a ewe is found mauled on the grass within one of the local farmers’ fields. After Hall observes the animal’s carcass, he declares that this has been done by a large feline predator, usually unknown to the UK. This predator is none other than a leopard.
Before long the leopard is spotted by the local games keeper Martin Jones, who foolishly takes a pot shot at the beast, wounding its front leg, but otherwise causing no further damage. Now that the leopard is injured it can no longer catch and kill its usual choice of prey in the wild; rabbits and other such wild animals. Instead, the leopard has to resort to easier targets, namely humans. The leopard is now a dangerous maneater.
Soon enough, a baby is killed and the mother wounded by the hungry and desperate leopard. Gordon Hall’s pervious fame as a successful hunter catches up with him as the news of a maneating leopard hits the papers. Unfortunately it attracts the unwanted attention of the local animal rights activist Ellen Mason, whose extreme measures add a new and unnecessary danger to Hall’s life.
The leopard is still at large and taking more victims with each day that passes. Hall pairs up with the local thirty-nine year old ex-bakery worker Dawn Finch, who Hall employs to do general household chores and the like. With the local police force and armed response unit sill having no luck with capturing or killing the leopard, a decision is made to seek the services of Gordon Hall.
Hall accepts the request for help and so his hunt for the illusive and highly dangerous leopard begins. The landscape is now covered in a thick layer of snow making hunting the beast a much more arduous task. The longer it takes Hall to kill the desperate killer leopard, the more victims it is likely to take. Time is truly of the essence, but not even the experienced Gordon Hall could predict the challenges that await him...
Structured as a very loose follow on from Smith’s early werewolf trilogy, there is no real need to have read any of these previous books beforehand to get the full enjoyment from this new tale. Smith is merely once again bringing to life one of his highly cherished characters in a new and exciting tale.
Smith’s love of the rural lifestyle, guns and hunting in general is brought to the forefront in this novel. No other piece of Smith’s fiction has delved so unashamedly into this passion of his, drawing on the hunting theme as the main premise to the tale.
The character of Gordon Hall has matured a lot since the early days of the ‘Werewolf’ novels. His age must now be well into his sixties at the very least. His developing relationship with Dawn Finch is brought into question on numerous occasions during the tale due to the large age gap between the two of them. Although he is now quite considerably older than in his previous adventures in the woodlands of Black Hill, Gordon Hall still proves to be a very able and skilful hunter.
The novel races through at a fast and suspense filled pace. The inclusion of the small ‘animal rights activist’ subplot adds a nice little break from the main thrust of the tale, whilst also allowing Smith to declare his obvious dislike for what he sees as the narrow minded and blinkered views of some such people. Smith manages to carefully throw in justifications for hunting, giving the story a very real and true to life feel to it.
With the dramatic ending in sight, Smith knocks the tension up a gear, slipping in unpredictable twists and turns to the tale until the grande finale is finally upon us. The conclusion is entirely satisfying, with a good and unrushed ending that suitably wraps up this eventful and fast paced adventure. Smith even slips in the possibility of a further Gordon Hall style ‘hunting’ sequel at the very end of the tale as a parting message.
All in all, Guy N Smith’s novel ‘Maneater’ was one of his most enjoyable reads to date. The novel shows that this master scribbler still has many top quality stories left in him, with his undeniable passion and talent for writing horror fiction still as strong as it has ever been.
The novel runs for a total of 185 pages and was published by Severn House Publishers.
Set within the rural area of the Shropshire and Welsh border, just up from the village of Llanadevy; the tale follows on in a strange fashion from Smith’s early ‘Werewolf’ trilogy (‘Werewolf by Moonlight’, ‘Return of the Werewolf’ and ‘The Son of the Werewolf’). Although this new tale is set a number of years after the horrific events that beset the village and surrounding farmland, Smith still gives a brief nod towards his old but obviously not forgotten characters of the past.
What undoubtedly links the novels together the most is the inclusion of the principal character of Gordon Hall. Although time has aged the now ex-reporter, Hall still gives off his undeniable charm and charisma. After the conclusion to ‘The Son of the Werewolf’, we learn that Hall has spent a number of years in South Africa as a professional hunter. During this time he honed his skills at tracking, hunting and killing large wild animals. Since then and the tragic death of his wife Diana, Hall has moved back to where he felt was truly his home; the rural landscape that surrounds the Black Hill.
The tale gets underway when a ewe is found mauled on the grass within one of the local farmers’ fields. After Hall observes the animal’s carcass, he declares that this has been done by a large feline predator, usually unknown to the UK. This predator is none other than a leopard.
Before long the leopard is spotted by the local games keeper Martin Jones, who foolishly takes a pot shot at the beast, wounding its front leg, but otherwise causing no further damage. Now that the leopard is injured it can no longer catch and kill its usual choice of prey in the wild; rabbits and other such wild animals. Instead, the leopard has to resort to easier targets, namely humans. The leopard is now a dangerous maneater.
Soon enough, a baby is killed and the mother wounded by the hungry and desperate leopard. Gordon Hall’s pervious fame as a successful hunter catches up with him as the news of a maneating leopard hits the papers. Unfortunately it attracts the unwanted attention of the local animal rights activist Ellen Mason, whose extreme measures add a new and unnecessary danger to Hall’s life.
The leopard is still at large and taking more victims with each day that passes. Hall pairs up with the local thirty-nine year old ex-bakery worker Dawn Finch, who Hall employs to do general household chores and the like. With the local police force and armed response unit sill having no luck with capturing or killing the leopard, a decision is made to seek the services of Gordon Hall.
Hall accepts the request for help and so his hunt for the illusive and highly dangerous leopard begins. The landscape is now covered in a thick layer of snow making hunting the beast a much more arduous task. The longer it takes Hall to kill the desperate killer leopard, the more victims it is likely to take. Time is truly of the essence, but not even the experienced Gordon Hall could predict the challenges that await him...
Structured as a very loose follow on from Smith’s early werewolf trilogy, there is no real need to have read any of these previous books beforehand to get the full enjoyment from this new tale. Smith is merely once again bringing to life one of his highly cherished characters in a new and exciting tale.
Smith’s love of the rural lifestyle, guns and hunting in general is brought to the forefront in this novel. No other piece of Smith’s fiction has delved so unashamedly into this passion of his, drawing on the hunting theme as the main premise to the tale.
The character of Gordon Hall has matured a lot since the early days of the ‘Werewolf’ novels. His age must now be well into his sixties at the very least. His developing relationship with Dawn Finch is brought into question on numerous occasions during the tale due to the large age gap between the two of them. Although he is now quite considerably older than in his previous adventures in the woodlands of Black Hill, Gordon Hall still proves to be a very able and skilful hunter.
The novel races through at a fast and suspense filled pace. The inclusion of the small ‘animal rights activist’ subplot adds a nice little break from the main thrust of the tale, whilst also allowing Smith to declare his obvious dislike for what he sees as the narrow minded and blinkered views of some such people. Smith manages to carefully throw in justifications for hunting, giving the story a very real and true to life feel to it.
With the dramatic ending in sight, Smith knocks the tension up a gear, slipping in unpredictable twists and turns to the tale until the grande finale is finally upon us. The conclusion is entirely satisfying, with a good and unrushed ending that suitably wraps up this eventful and fast paced adventure. Smith even slips in the possibility of a further Gordon Hall style ‘hunting’ sequel at the very end of the tale as a parting message.
All in all, Guy N Smith’s novel ‘Maneater’ was one of his most enjoyable reads to date. The novel shows that this master scribbler still has many top quality stories left in him, with his undeniable passion and talent for writing horror fiction still as strong as it has ever been.
The novel runs for a total of 185 pages and was published by Severn House Publishers.
January 30, 2019
At first glance, this appears to be just another bad animal attack novel, a genre I have a real affection for. It's full of cliche characters and clumsy prose as many of its kin are, but dig a little deeper and it becomes apparent that what you're actually reading is some sort of political manifesto, as Smith sets up a string of strawman villains for his heroic self insert hero to knock down. Oh, and there's a killer leopard in there somewhere too.
Our hero is the noble Gordon Hall, an ex-hunter, avid pipe smoker and outdoorsman in his late 60s, who is definitely not just 70 year old (at the time of writing) former gamekeeper, hunter and British Pipe Smoking Champion Guy N. Smith's idealised vision of himself. When a killer leopard threatens the rural community he's retired to, it's up to Gordon to stop it, if the lying media, animal rights activists and gun hating police don't get in his way that is!
The standout has to be the animal rights woman, who we're told via flashback used to be an ordinary girl from a good family until she saw a slaughterhouse, became a vegetarian and made the next logical step by petrol bombing animal testing labs and laughing at the thoughts of the workers burning alive inside. Of all the political rants Smith crams in here, this is clearly the one he has the biggest chip on his shoulder about, and as such she gets the most brutal death in the book as she accidentally petrol bombs herself (it's ironic!) and we're treated to a description of how "the heat began to melt her voluptous breasts, nipples burning like candles".
The book eventually descends into an absolutely rotten love story between Gu-, err, Gordon and his 30 years younger blank slate of a love interest. It doesn't just have no chemistry, it has negative chemistry, and I was willing the leopard to finish off the pair so the thing would finally end.
If there's one positive, the early depiction of the leopard is very good. It's not a monster like you see in most of these books, it's an animal which actively avoids humans, before forced to target man after being left unable to hunt it's usual prey when injured. Unfortunately even that goes out the window later on, as it begins hunting specific humans out of revenge and ignoring easy meals in order to do so despite supposedly being on the verge of starvation.
Utter rubbish from start to finish, but so absurd I actually sort of enjoyed it.
Our hero is the noble Gordon Hall, an ex-hunter, avid pipe smoker and outdoorsman in his late 60s, who is definitely not just 70 year old (at the time of writing) former gamekeeper, hunter and British Pipe Smoking Champion Guy N. Smith's idealised vision of himself. When a killer leopard threatens the rural community he's retired to, it's up to Gordon to stop it, if the lying media, animal rights activists and gun hating police don't get in his way that is!
The standout has to be the animal rights woman, who we're told via flashback used to be an ordinary girl from a good family until she saw a slaughterhouse, became a vegetarian and made the next logical step by petrol bombing animal testing labs and laughing at the thoughts of the workers burning alive inside. Of all the political rants Smith crams in here, this is clearly the one he has the biggest chip on his shoulder about, and as such she gets the most brutal death in the book as she accidentally petrol bombs herself (it's ironic!) and we're treated to a description of how "the heat began to melt her voluptous breasts, nipples burning like candles".
The book eventually descends into an absolutely rotten love story between Gu-, err, Gordon and his 30 years younger blank slate of a love interest. It doesn't just have no chemistry, it has negative chemistry, and I was willing the leopard to finish off the pair so the thing would finally end.
If there's one positive, the early depiction of the leopard is very good. It's not a monster like you see in most of these books, it's an animal which actively avoids humans, before forced to target man after being left unable to hunt it's usual prey when injured. Unfortunately even that goes out the window later on, as it begins hunting specific humans out of revenge and ignoring easy meals in order to do so despite supposedly being on the verge of starvation.
Utter rubbish from start to finish, but so absurd I actually sort of enjoyed it.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews