Fjögur hefti unnin upp úr verðlaunaðri nóvellu eftir George R. R. Martin. Aðalsöguhetjan Randi er einkaspæjari sem er þjökuð af dularfullu áratuga gömlu morði á föður hennar. Vinur hennar Willie er rukkari, sjúklingur og fullur leyndarmála en neyðist til að fá hana til að rannsaka morð vinkonu sinnar sem er myrt með grimmilegum hætti. Brátt fer Randi að gruna að varúlfar séu til og að morðið á föður hennar tengist jafnvel því sem hún rannsakar.
Myndasögurnar eru í meðallagi góðar en nóvellan þykir víst margfalt betri. ( )

George R.R. Martin may be famous for his televised series A Song of Ice and Fire, but before that, he was and still is active on other literary fronts, like horror. My first encounter with the horror-version of Mr Martin was [b:De Fevre Dream|18718706|De Fevre Dream|George R.R. Martin|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1382808667l/18718706._SY75_.jpg|2564105] (the Dutch translation of 'Fevre Dream', which I reviewed in Dutch here). I liked this trip into the past very much.

One of his other horror-works is 'The Skin Trade', originally published in 1988. It won the World Fantasy Award for Best Novella (1989). The story got translated in the past few years, also in France. Éditions ActuSF first published it in 2012. Seven years later, an augmented edition sees the light of day. There is still a foreword and biography by [a:Emmanuel Chastellière|3177742|Emmanuel Chastellière|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png], whose [b:Célestopol|35273269|Célestopol|Emmanuel Chastellière|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1496240557l/35273269._SY75_.jpg|56632276] / [b:Célestopol|45457737|Célestopol|Emmanuel Chastellière|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1557052234l/45457737._SY75_.jpg|56632276] (yes, both editions, as the latter was very lightly revised) is on my TBR-pile. The rest of this new edition of 'Skin Trade' contains a large extract of [b:Nightflyers et autres récits|43505143|Nightflyers et autres récits|George R.R. Martin|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1546928645l/43505143._SX50_.jpg|65889].

Sandwiched between the foreword and the biography/extract part is the real story. Two main characters, Willie Flambeaux (a debt-recovery agent) and Randi Wade (private detective, her father was in the local police force), investigate suspicious murders: people skinned alive. Randi and Willie have their own ways of approaching the matter. Willie, not being totally honest with Randi, is far from sporty, even has asthma and is very dependent on his Ventolin (inhaler), but as an agent, he can be very convincing and cunning. Randi will trespass when needed and possible, even go farther than her father's former colleagues, like a certain Joe Urquhart, her father's former partner.

Speaking of her father: He (and Joe) was charged at some time to investigate the massive killings of children. However, they couldn't solve the case, as Randi's father got killed by "some kind of wild animal". This mystery has since then always haunted Randi's mind and she will continue to use this to get more information, even for her current case.

The current case involves people Willie knew and was acquainted with.

Mr Martin didn't show many cards, but offered only bits and pieces to keep everyone in suspense. Why are these people assassinated? Is there a motif? Are there any suspects? Witnesses? Who's behind this? One man? A group? Were there such or similar cases in the past? A pattern? And so on, and so forth.

As Willie and Randi fight their way onwards to discover the secret, it's a bit like a video game, as another reader wrote. At the end, they have to confront and fight the end boss. However, it's not as simple as that. There is more to it, much more. The town is infested, so to speak. Werewolves play a role (By day, they take on a human form, by night or when danger is present, they transform), as the depiction on the cover clearly indicates. Those who were taken out, were lycanthropes. One crazy member, who couldn't transform, desperately wanted to. Killing others was the only way to obtain a wolfskin and let the dark powers come to life, to please the werewolves overlord.

Behind the killings, both the children's and the most recent ones, is an entire group of werewolves who have influence in the most important places, not in the least the police force. This explains why this and similar cases can't and don't get solved. Willie only reveals his personal secret (Yes, he too is a werewolf, but uses his powers only to do good or when his human body won't carry him far or fast enough) when he has no other choice, but his silence long put a damper on their (his and Randi's) mutual understanding and friendship. And they need each other very much, as they complement one another.

This tale of stripping one's victims of their skins reminded me a bit of [b:La Trilogie de Wielstadt|11166804|La Trilogie de Wielstadt|Pierre Pevel|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1328184143l/11166804._SX50_.jpg|16090937] by [a:Pierre Pevel|1201844|Pierre Pevel|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1374250949p2/1201844.jpg]. If my memory doesn't fool me, the third book ([b:Le chevalier de Wielstadt|5134221|Le chevalier de Wielstadt (Wielstadt, #3)|Pierre Pevel|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1333354317l/5134221._SY75_.jpg|5201101]) involves a character who acts in a similar way.

'Skin Trade' is a very entertaining story, recommended as an in-between for fans of horror and/or urban fantasy. The book reads like a page-turner, thanks to Martin's skilful writing (and the translation by Annaïg Houesnard, since I read the French edition). There are no chapters, which is a way of making you (want to) read on and discover, through the alternating POVs of Willie and Randi, what happens.

This story was to be the first in a series with Willie and Randi at the helm, but time and circumstances decided differently. On the other hand, it would have been nice to see a few more become reality, and so offer more insight and information on the world and on both main characters in the first place. But it is what it is, and it's good and that's all that matters.

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I was sent this book by Éditions ActuSF for review. Many thanks to them for the trust. ( )

"Skin Trade", was published in the "Night Visions 5" anthology in 1989, and won the World Fantasy Award for best novella.

I picked it up because I wanted to see how it compared to "The Wolf's Hour" by Robert McCammon, which was also published in 1989, a year when werewolf novels were not a common phenomenon.

Where, "The Wolf's Hour" is a long, dark, sometimes lyrical, journey from the frozen forests of post-revolutionary Russia through to the heart of Nazi Germany, "Skin Trade" is a short, brutal, noirish, vision of an American city secretly governed by werewolves.

Wrapped in the skin of a conventional story of a hard-boiled (albeit female) private detective with a past, investigating a brutal crime that brings back memories of a personal tragedy, is an edgy, bloody, violent, werewolf horror story to chill your bones.

The pace is slower than a modern version of this tale would be but, for the most part, this adds to the tension. The point of view in the story switches between the human, female, hard-assed private detective and her asthmatic-as-a-human-but-not-as-a-wolf, debt-collecting, werewolf ("That's lycanthrope to you, Schmuck. It's a medical condition) friend.

The audiobook handles this by having two narrators. Each does a good job independently but the cutting between them, especially at the beginning, is a little rough and the two do not mimic each other's voices. This is a minor imperfection that did not spoil the book for me.

The story is reeks of blood and fear. It also contains a number of references that "Game Of Thrones" fans will recognize: strong, dangerous women, Dire Wolves, flayings, heroics from apparently weak/disabled characters and cryptic references to dark forces from another world that come to hunt the hunters.

If you have three and half hours to spare and want to open your mind to a different kind of werewolf tale, curl up in an armchair, preferably close to the fire, and listen to "Skin Trade". ( )

Reading, or in this case re-reading, the stories contained in the two-volume collection Dreamsongs always reminds me that G.R.R. Martin can speak in many voices, not just that of epic fantasy: The Skin Trade, a long novella or short novel depending on the point of view, is a perfect example of Martin's wide variety of styles, mixing in this case both horror and urban fantasy in a story that's quite compelling.

Willie Flambeaux is a collection agent, an unremarkable kind of guy saddled with asthma and a paunch, but he suddenly finds himself at the center of dreadful events as his friends are being murdered in the most savage way - as if mauled by an animal. He asks his friend Randi Wade, a private investigator, to look into the matter, even though he knows this will raise some dark ghosts from her past: twenty years before Randi's father, a police officer, was killed by some kind of animal, so the official report went, an animal that was uncannily able to withstand being shot with the entire load of Wade Senior's gun, and disappear.

As the two of them try to make sense of the evidence in the recent murder spree, and to overcome what looks like blindness or lack of interest from the police, we learn that Willie is a werewolf - or, as he prefers to say, a lycanthrope, and that there is a good number of these creatures in the city. What's even more alarming is that the victims of the ghastly murders were lycanthropes themselves, and that therefore - as the pack leader and unofficial city owner Jonathan Harmon warns Willie - there is someone or something that is hunting the hunters.

One of the most fascinating sides of this story, aside from its fast, compelling pace, is the new outlook adopted for the werewolf myth: the transformation is not dependent on the moon, as the werewolves can change at whim, and that in the shifted form they are more powerful, have more stamina and can overcome any physical problem present in their human aspect. For example, Willie's asthma disappears completely when he becomes a wolf, and his friend Joan - the first victim - though paralyzed as a human, was able to move and run when she changed. Still, the lycanthropes are sensitive to silver, and that detail will prove very important in the course of the story…

Another element I enjoyed is the banter between Randi and Willie, who have known each other for a long time and despite their differences have managed to build a friendship that's based on mutual respect and trust, even though it's hidden under Randi's verbal barbs and Willie's futile but still enthusiastic attempts at seducing the investigator. There is a slow buildup and an equally slow reveal about the creature that is killing werewolves all over the city, and the last part of the story is a breathless rush that will keep you turning the pages compulsively.

And on a side note, you can also appreciate this novella in audio format, where Randi Wade is played by Australian actress Claudia Black (a.k.a. Farscape's Aeryn Sun), an experience I wholeheartedly recommend.


Originally posted at SPACE and SORCERY BLOG ( )

Three and a half stars.
This rather interesting little book is a werewolf urban fantasy. I did enjoy it, but in places it had an unfinished feel. Sometimes things weren't explained enough which made me feel like I'd missed something. Overall, it's a good foray into this sort of story, with it's own unique spin on the werewolf idea. ( )