The Wolf Trial by Neil Mackay
The premise is intriguing: in a small town in 16th century Germany, a serial killer is captured and tried as a werewolf. There are moments of gory, shocking detail – an unflinching account of the killer licking the warm blood from the cheek of a baby he’s killed is particularly horrifying. This being the 16th century, there’s plenty of torture, accusations of devil worship and battles between church and state. There are bumbling guards, meddling officials, brilliant lawyers – all told from the point of view of the lawyer’s boy, writing an account many years after the events. At its heart is the worrying idea that this killer could be human: much better to be a werewolf, and assign all the psychopathic qualities to 'the Other'.
It’s a good story let down by a cloying prose style. Mackay has chosen to write a faux-authentic account: the sentences long and roundabout, often doubling back to pin down their meaning. This, admittedly is how a 16th century lawyer might have done it, perhaps, but is an infuriating pastiche. Mackay has left no gaps to fill – his research and authorial intent rule supreme. Every detail is overstated in case the reader missed an important point. It drags where it should have pace, and whole swathes of it could be gutted to leave a slimmer, quicker, livelier whole.