Benighted »

“A fascinating and unique tale in an alternate reality where being human is a hindrance. Kit Whitfield has created an astonishing read.”
–Sherrilyn Kenyon, author of the Dark-Hunter series

“Kit Whitfield has created a unique and powerful twist on the werewolf mythos, an eloquent parable about the profound effects of prejudice and violence on both perpetrator and victim. Benighted will leave you thinking long after you’ve turned the last page.”
–Susan Krinard, author of Touch of the Wolf

It is a world much like our own, with one deadly difference: ninety-nine percent of the population is lycanthropic. When the full moon rises, humans transform into lunes, bloodthirsty beasts who cannot be reasoned with or tamed. Those few born unable to change are disparagingly known as barebacks, and live as victims of prejudice and oppression. All too often, they are targets of savage mauling and death by lunes who break the law to roam free on full-moon nights.

Twenty something bareback Lola Galley is already a veteran of the Department for the Ongoing Regulation of Lycanthropic Activities. When her friend loses a hand to a marauding lune, then is murdered before the attacker is brought to trial, Lola is desperate to see justice prevail. But the truth is seldom simple–and Lola may not like the shocking answers she uncovers.

“An impressive debut, Benighted is a well-written and well-thought-out examination of prejudice as seen through the lens of the werewolf novel.”
–Tananarive Due, author of Joplin’s Ghost

Publishers Weekly

In this impressive werewolf novel with a detective story twist, first-time British author Whitfield imagines a contemporary world whose majority are people who "fur up" at full moon; the scorned minority called barebacks by their wolven, "lycanthropic" peers are permanently clad in their human skin. Whitfield's bareback protagonist, Lola Galley, is a lawyer with DORLA (Department for the Ongoing Regulation of Lycanthropic Activity), an unpopular organization necessary to maintaining order in a civilized world. Lola's full-moon duties include "dogcatching," or chasing down stray "lunes," lycos in vicious, canine form. When a bareback friend loses a hand to the snapping jaws of a lune and then turns up shot dead a few days later it's Lola's job to defend the mauler who becomes a murder suspect. In the process of her investigation, Lola must face her own biases as a minority and unearth the secret behind the divide in her society. A nuanced exploration of prejudice, this deftly written, absorbing debut deserves a crossover literary and fantasy readership. (Sept.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.