The Wild Hunt

About the Book

The legend of The Wild Hunt is as old as mankind. Every race has its version of The Hunt - the "raging host" of poachers' gangs who drove their quarry by night in defiance of ferociously strict game laws: the penalty for killing a deer was hanging. Disguised in the skins of beasts, they spread terror through the countryside, especially as they hunted not only animals but other humans and, when stimulated by drink and drugs, tore to pieces and devoured living creatures. As late as the 20th century, terrorists in the Congo and Kenya disguised themselves in panther and leopard pelts, the claws reinforced with steel to lacerate victims. The most common disguise was a wolf-hide, particularly in northern Europe, creating the werewolf superstition. It was clearly addictive behaviour, and some of its patterns can be discovered in modern gang activities.

Could a Wild Hunt survive into our time? In a remote area, seldom visited by outsiders, a secret werewolf cult might still be pursuing and devouring its victims. The Wild Hunt tells of a young university woman who inherits a long-abandoned farmhouse which she plans to restore for a summer retreat, only to learn (too late) that it has become the headquarters of a Wild Hunt surviving among the men of a degenerate village. The anthropological soundness lends a terrifying plausibility which heightens the suspense more acutely than would the fear of supernatural, shape-shifting werewolves.

About the Author

The Wild Hunt is Victoria Branden's seventh book, third novel. It is her first attempt at the horror genre; her earlier work leans towards comedy. Her other two novels, Mrs. Job and Flitterin' Judas, are extremely funny; even her non-fiction is full of wry humor, although two of its examples (Understanding Ghosts and Give Up the Ghost) concern a different subject: scientific interpretation of paranormal manifestations. Of the two others, In Defense of Plain English deals with the deterioration of English usage; one enthusiast described how, when she was reading it on the subway, she laughed so much that another passenger remarked, "that must be a funny book -- what's it about?" "You should have seen her face," reported the reader, "when I said it was about grammar." The Book of Canadian Snobs is also good fun, as well as a penetrating study of modern Canadian social values.

Ms. Branden is currently working on her magnum opus, a study of the mystic experience and mystic philosophy, in non-supernatural terms, tentatively entitled Pure and Endless Light.