Imagine a world populated by werewolves, known as lupes.  At times of the full moon, their behaviour needs to be regulated so they are subject to a curfew. Lola Galley's role is to do just that, working for DORLA (Department for Ongoing Regulation of Lycanthropic Activity), who's job is to patrol those nights and round-up anyone breaking that curfew. But she's a bareback, someone who is only human.  It's a hazardous, thankless and vicious task. When's she assigned the case of Richard Ellaway, the lupe who murdered her friend, she's dealing with a bloodier, more savage assignment. And when she falls in love with a lupe, her life become even more complicated.

Werewolves, like vampires, are perennial favorites of the horror genre and trying to find a new twist is never easy. But Kit Whitfield has managed to evolve the werewolf into a kind of anti-social condition, which needs regular policing.  It's a refreshing approach especially when crafted onto essentially a crime story. Equally she doesn't feel the need to delve into the existing myths and parade them at every opportunity.  If anything Whitfield prefers not to disclose how this genetic condition arose.  The characters have learned to adapt to this society however it came into being and the reader is expected to accept this new reality without question. She pays visits to the past only in terms of the events that have shaped Lola, her family and friends; a technique that gives the drama extra resonance.

Just as the transformation from human to lupe can be unpredictable and character changing, so does Whitfield's story: two genres sometimes struggling against each other for dominance. However, it's a very believable world, disturbing and moving. Her imagination has created a darkly dangerous world that touches on the realms of reality and by keeping her geographical descriptions to a minimum, it becomes an every city situation, neither London nor New York.  Written in the present tense and with a first person narrative, Bareback bristles with a stark immediacy - confidently imagined debut novel.