In the opening to WHEN THE WOLF COMES HOME, Nat Cassidy shows off his performing skills and cagey sense of humor by discussing his feelings about “content warnings” prior to the start of a book. He describes the subject matter of this novel as being “specifically about the slippery nature of fear and how important it is to find healthy ways to live with it.”

A little boy is terrified of his father, who is tearing up their house in search of him and has taken on the appearance of something otherworldly. As he runs screaming into the night, his last memory is seeing his father resemble a werewolf.

"Occasionally, I felt that the plot Cassidy devised could have been plucked from an old Dean Koontz novel. I enjoyed taking a trip back down those thrilling roads."

The next scene is set in a bar where Jess, a struggling actress, is attempting to battle the doldrums of the job with her coworker pal, Margie. When a guest of the bar leaves behind a mess in the bathroom, they choose up sides on how to handle it. Jess is sent to clean it up, while Margie works to get the culprit out the door. The vomit is not the worst part; it’s the hypodermic needle hidden behind the toilet bowl that Jess gets jabbed with, which sets her evening on a downward spiral that just gets worse and worse.

When Jess gets back to her apartment, she makes a strange discovery --- a young boy hiding in the bushes outside her door. She coaxes him inside and is able to get him to relinquish the book of fairy tales that’s under his arm. Jess can tell the child is afraid of something that might be after him, and that is when it arrives --- a huge creature roaring at them and looking like some kind of monstrous bear. When her roommate, Kelsey, comes home to this spectacle, she goes at the beast with the gun she had kept hidden. The last thing Jess and the boy see as they flee is the beast tearing apart poor Kelsey.

One eerie thought goes through Jess’ mind as she is on the run --- a bit of graffiti that had adorned the wall of her bar once: NO ONE WILL BE SPARED WHEN… She then finishes the statement in her head: “the wolf comes home.” They run off to a hotel where a room is waiting for them, paid for by Jess’ mother. There the situation really comes to a head when a cartoon causes the boy to lose his temper and begin blurting out negative things about his father. The story takes a truly surreal turn as Jess finds herself under attack in the hallways of the hotel by something that looks like Christopher Lloyd and the two weasel henchmen depicted in the film Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

At this point, we meet FBI Agent Santos. He is in pursuit of the boy, who has left behind a trail of destruction with which Jess now has firsthand experience. Everyone around them seems to be killed by some monstrous creature. Santos is aware that the boy is responsible for all of this, and he knows who made him this way. The hard part will be getting a hold of him and saving Jess and anyone else who might cross his path.

WHEN THE WOLF COMES HOME takes on many different topics and underlying storylines, the least of which are daddy issues and understanding that monsters in each family have the power to destroy everyone and everything in their proximity. Occasionally, I felt that the plot Cassidy devised could have been plucked from an old Dean Koontz novel. I enjoyed taking a trip back down those thrilling roads.