The Howling II (novel)

Infobox Book |
name = The Howling II


image_caption = Cover of "The Howling II"
aka "Return Of The Howling".
author = Gary Brandner
illustrator =
cover_artist =
country = United States
language = English
series = "The Howling"
subject = Werewolves
genre = Horror novel
publisher = Hamlyn (UK Edition)
release_date = 1978
media_type = Print (Hardback & Paperback)
pages =
isbn = ISBN 0-600-34614-5 (1984 reissue)
preceded_by = "The Howling"
followed_by =

"The Howling II" is a 1978 horror novel by Gary Brandner. It is the first sequel to his 1977 werewolf novel, "The Howling". The novel was later republished under the alternative titles: "The Howling II: The Return", and also "Return Of The Howling".

Despite the ongoing film series that began in the 1980s, "The Howling II" was not adapted as a film and bears no similarities to the 1985 film "" or any of the other "Howling" films.

Plot Summary

Three years after the events of "The Howling", Karyn Beatty has now remarried and lives in Seattle. Although content with her new life with her husband, David Richter, and her stepson Joey, she is still occasionally plagued by nightmares that stem from her horrfying ordeal in the Californian mountain village of Drago with its werewolf inhabitants. Karyn regularly sees a therapist to help work through her problems, but when a spate of horrifying killings begin to occur, including that of the family's housekeeper, Karyn is convinced that the surviving werewolves of Drago have tracked her down. Fearing for the lives of her new family, Karyn leaves town hoping she will lead the evil creatures away from her loved ones.

Karyn's fears were well founded as she had indeed been tracked down by none other than her ex-husband Roy (now a werewolf) and Marcia Lura, the evil Drago werewolf who first bit him. Both Roy and Marcia survived the fire in Drago, but Marcia is now partially scarred and incapacitated due to being shot in the head with a silver bullet by Karyn at the end of the first novel. Though the bullet did not kill her as expected, it left a streak of silver through her black hair and rendered her unable to fully transform into a werewolf as before, leaving her only able to become a grotesque half-woman/half-wolf at night. As such, she wants revenge for what Karyn did to her.

In Mexico, Karyn tracks down Chris Halloran, the family friend who helped her during her first ordeal in Drago. She tells him that the werewolves of Drago have come for her and she needs his help once more. However, Chris's new girlfriend, Audrey, is jealous of his prior relationship with Karyn and does everything she can to undermine their friendship. When Roy and Marcia finally track Karyn down to Mexico, they set a trap for her at a mountainside cabin with Audrey's help, and close in for the kill. Again, Chris comes to Karyn's rescue and fights with Roy (who takes the form of a wolf). Chris fears Roy has bitten him during their fight, but eventually manages to kill Roy with a silver knife. However, in the the nearby mountainside cabin, Marcia is holding Karyn hostage and is about to torture her with a red hot poker when Marcia begins her agonizing change into the half-wolf creature she has become. When Chris arrives, a fire breaks out in the cabin. Chris rescues Karyn, and Marcia (or the creature she has become) burns to death as the cabin goes up in flames.