The Wolfen is a 1978 horror novel by Whitley Strieber. Written as an investigative novel, it pits the main characters in what turns out to be a fight for their very lives.
Two NYPD detectives, Becky Neff and George Wilson, are tasked with investigating the strange deaths of two of their fellow cops from the Auto Squad, who were both found dead in a junk yard. The two officers appear to have been brutally mauled to death by some kind of unusually large canine, but curiously, neither of them show signs of having struggled or otherwise tried to defend themselves against the animal that attacked them.
Due to the strange circumstances surrounding the deaths, the investigation stall out, and in order to avoid raising public concern in advance of upcoming elections, the police department decide to write off the two deaths as the result of an accident, with the official explanation being that the cops were attacked by a pack of stray dogs after becoming intoxicated with carbon monoxide. Reluctant to leave the real cause of death of their colleagues unknown, Neff and Wilson takes it upon themselves to unoffically continue the investigation in hope of getting some answers. These answers turn out to be strange indeed...
The novel was adapted into a movie in 1981 as Wolfen. The film took plenty of changes from the source, the most important being the changing of the concept of what the titular creatures are.
The novel contains examples of:
- Black Comedy: There are some moments of this.
- Buddy Cop Show: The two human leads have this dynamic.
- Chase Scene: The Wolfen naturally chase their new prey throughout the book.
- Defiant to the End: When the Wolfen realize that they have been revealed, they let out a defiant howl. Dozens of packs across the city join in.
- Disposable Vagrant: The Wolfen pretty much survive by eating whoever this trope defines, based on where they live and when they live.
- Dogs Are Dumb: Almost entirely averted by the Wolfen, except for the blunder made by two young ones that kick off the plot.
- Gorn: It is a horror novel, after all.
- Hidden in Plain Sight: The Wolfen have been operating this way for so long and so expertly that they're only regarded as a myth in the modern day.
- Idiot Ball: The plot kicks off mostly because two young Wolfen make a mistake of killing people who would bring investigators into their world.
- Our Vampires Are Different: In addition to the below example, the same character believes that humans who help the Wolfen are the real thing behind vampire legends. However, this is never at all confirmed in-universe.
- Our Werewolves Are Different: The titular creatures are not shapeshifters but rather a freak evolutionary offshoot which is never fully explained. Though they don't swap forms, they have developed fully articulated paws that act like hands along with human-level intellect (operating in a feral, instinctive manner), making them man-wolves of sorts. Although there isn't any supernatural element to them, the Wolfen are quite frightening, being clever enough to understand human speech, operate mechanical devices, evaluate the threat of guns and feed on us right in our midst, having remained unseen long enough for mankind to dismissed them as fairy tales, or simply forget them altogether. Inside the text itself, one of the present-day characters (inspired by what he believes to be a historical source) theorizes that the Wolfen themselves are the real animal behind stories of the werewolf — however, this is never confirmed beyond their theories.
- Real After All: There is naturally some skepticism among our cop main characters, but the Wolfen are real, and in the end, they have proof.
- Rotating Protagonist: The same events are retold multiple times from both the human perspective and that of the Wolfen.
- Savage Wolves: The Wolfen are a race of more human-like wolves that have been in hiding and hunting undesirables.
- Ventriloquism: The Wolfen pull this off with the added bonus of making their voice sound like that of a crying human baby.
- Xenofiction: The Wolfen chapters.
