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Cat
On a dark, deserted road, a lonely traveller was torn to pieces...
In a sunlit wood, a woman saw her two pet dogs eaten alive...
At a quiet house, a giant animal smelled flesh, and smashed its way inside...
The people of the quiet Surrey village of Wittlemead called it simply 'The Cat', for they could find no better words to describe the ravening black beast that prowled the nearby woods. The Cat was deadly, inexorable and fearless; no living thing, human or animal, was safe while it lived. Peter Gwynvor, Master of the local hunt, spearheaded the efforts to track down and kill the Cat before it could strike yet again. But as his campaign progressed he realised that the conflict between man and beast was merely a mirror for another, far deeper and more personal conflict within himself—a conflict he hardly dared acknowledge. The Cat had become the symbol of Peter's secret fears—and only when they met face to face, to kill or be killed, would those fears finally be resolved...
In a sunlit wood, a woman saw her two pet dogs eaten alive...
At a quiet house, a giant animal smelled flesh, and smashed its way inside...
The people of the quiet Surrey village of Wittlemead called it simply 'The Cat', for they could find no better words to describe the ravening black beast that prowled the nearby woods. The Cat was deadly, inexorable and fearless; no living thing, human or animal, was safe while it lived. Peter Gwynvor, Master of the local hunt, spearheaded the efforts to track down and kill the Cat before it could strike yet again. But as his campaign progressed he realised that the conflict between man and beast was merely a mirror for another, far deeper and more personal conflict within himself—a conflict he hardly dared acknowledge. The Cat had become the symbol of Peter's secret fears—and only when they met face to face, to kill or be killed, would those fears finally be resolved...
- GenresHorror
157 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1976
44 people want to read
About the author
Andrew Sinclair
185 books31 followersAndrew Sinclair was born in Oxford in 1935 and was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge. After earning a Ph.D. in American History from Cambridge, he pursued an academic career in the United States and England. His first two novels, written while he was still at Cambridge, were both published in 1959: The Breaking of Bumbo (based on his own experience in the Coldstream Guards, and later adapted for a 1970 film written and directed by Sinclair) and My Friend Judas. Other early novels included The Project (1960), The Hallelujah Bum (1963), and The Raker (1964). The latter, also available from Valancourt, is a clever mix of Gothic fantasy and macabre comedy and was inspired by Sinclair’s relationship with Derek Lindsay, the pseudonymous author of the acclaimed novel The Rack (1958). Sinclair’s best-known novel, Gog (1967), a highly imaginative, picaresque account of the adventures of a seven-foot-tall man who washes ashore on the Scottish coast, naked and suffering from amnesia, has been named one of the top 100 modern fantasy novels. As the first in the ‘Albion Triptych’, it was followed by Magog (1972) and King Ludd (1988).
Sinclair’s varied and prolific career has also included work in film and a large output of nonfiction. As a director, he is best known for Under Milk Wood (1972), adapted from a Dylan Thomas play and starring Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. Sinclair’s nonfiction includes works on American history (including The Better Half: The Emancipation of the American Woman, which won the 1967 Somerset Maugham Award), books on Dylan Thomas, Jack London, Che Guevara, and Francis Bacon, and, more recently, works on the Knights Templar and the Freemasons.
Sinclair was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1972. He lives in London.
Sinclair’s varied and prolific career has also included work in film and a large output of nonfiction. As a director, he is best known for Under Milk Wood (1972), adapted from a Dylan Thomas play and starring Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. Sinclair’s nonfiction includes works on American history (including The Better Half: The Emancipation of the American Woman, which won the 1967 Somerset Maugham Award), books on Dylan Thomas, Jack London, Che Guevara, and Francis Bacon, and, more recently, works on the Knights Templar and the Freemasons.
Sinclair was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1972. He lives in London.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
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October 26, 2018IT'S THE GREAT KILLER CAT READ-OFF! GIANT CAT TERRORIZES NYFC! GIANT CAT TERRORIZES QUIET SURREY VILLAGE OF WITTLEMEAD!! WHICH WILL BE MORE FEROCIOUS? LET'S FIND OUT!
January 3, 2019
A very by the numbers knockoff, "as gripping as Jaws" it ain't. The late 70s and early 80s saw a ton of killer animals books and films trying to cash in on the success of Benchley's novel, of varying quality, and Cat sits somewhere in the middle. Any scene with the titular beast in it is great, Sinclair doesn't do anything too remarkable but he ratchets up the tension nicely and some of the pictures he paints are pretty evocative; there's one scene in particular in which the master of a fox hunt confronts the cat with his whip while both are surrounded by the corpses of his hounds that the creature has just slaughtered that stuck with me.
Unfortunately whenever we cut away from the beast to focus on the human characters it stumbles somewhat. Our protagonist is a melodramatic toff and any time spent with him and his perfunctory love triangle and inheritance squabbles feels like it's only there to fill pages. It's a shame, as both the gamekeeper (obvious Quint stand in though he may be) and the policeman we follow in the early chapters would have made for more engaging leads.
On the whole it's not bad, it moves along at a brisk enough pace and for every chapter of this guy agonising over his bad back there's one of a panther fighting like 30 dogs at once or decapitating people with it's claws. You could certainly do better, but you could do worse too.
Unfortunately whenever we cut away from the beast to focus on the human characters it stumbles somewhat. Our protagonist is a melodramatic toff and any time spent with him and his perfunctory love triangle and inheritance squabbles feels like it's only there to fill pages. It's a shame, as both the gamekeeper (obvious Quint stand in though he may be) and the policeman we follow in the early chapters would have made for more engaging leads.
On the whole it's not bad, it moves along at a brisk enough pace and for every chapter of this guy agonising over his bad back there's one of a panther fighting like 30 dogs at once or decapitating people with it's claws. You could certainly do better, but you could do worse too.
June 1, 2023
I like a good rampaging animal novel and wasn't disappointed by this one.
Maybe the backstory of the lord of the manor's love life wasn't up to scratch (no pun intended) but the cat scenes make up for it and hey all these books have the same sort of scenario
Maybe the backstory of the lord of the manor's love life wasn't up to scratch (no pun intended) but the cat scenes make up for it and hey all these books have the same sort of scenario
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews