SOURCE: SHAPESHIFTER (2000) by J. F. Gonzalez

DESCRIPTION: "That was the only way to describe it. It was a werewolf they were looking, mauling what looked to be a middle-aged man. It walked upright, was covered in dark gray fur. Its arms were long, ending in long, fur-shaped claws, and its face was strangely human, yet canine; the bottom portion of the face was pushed out into a very canine-looking snout, jaws filled with large, sharp teeth, while the eyes and forehead were human-like in appearance..."

PLOT: A dishonest businessman, Bernard Roberts, uses a werewolf to kill off members of the board of directors about to take over his company in a merger. The werewolf, Mark Wiseman, is a student who works for the company. He falls in love with the Roberts' secretary, the beautiful Carol Emrich and the two flee Roberts' evil plans. How will their run to survive end?

WEREWOLF FACTS: Gonzalez's werewolves seem to be cursed at birth, though he does pass the curse on by nearly killing another man. The werewolves can become fully wolf-like or a hybrid wolfman depending on how well the lycanthrope is controlling his nature. The werewolves in this novel are not immune to gunfire. They have the heightened sense of a wolf even when in human form. They can choose to change or are forced to change by the full moon.

INTERESTING FACTS:  Gonzalez's novel is fully within the modern "media generation". He doesn't waste time explaining much about his werewolves, using movie references to An American Werewolf in London and other films. The people in his story know what a werewolf is from watching movies too, even if they don't believe in them. This familiarity allows the story to truck along without huge (and pointless) info-dumps.  Ironically, Gonzalez is also not afraid of writing an ending that steers clear of the 'too-happy' Hollywood ending.