FICTION

ST. PETER’S WOLF by Michael Cadnum (Carroll & Graf: $18.95; 334 pp . ). How many times can the werewolf myth be dug up and redone? One more time, apparently, in this well-crafted and haunting treatment that focuses on San Francisco psychologist and art collector Benjamin Bird. Even with his marriage breaking up, Bird--proper to the point of priggishness--is an unlikely man to become obsessed with a boxed set of silver-inlaid fangs that fall into his possession. But possession is the key word here as, subtly, Bird begins to understand and empathize with the mysticism of the werewolf and man’s fascination with the freedom, power and sensuality that these creatures embody. His transformations, back and forth from man to werewolf, are smoothly done, and the alliance between Bird and the similarly enslaved Johanna deepens into love as, bit by bit, they both slip more firmly into the werewolf mode even as the dragnet around them tightens. An engrossing approach to a durable myth.