THIS EXTRAORDINARY free-verse debut novel wraps what would have to be termed a cross-species love story around a noir tale of drugs, murder and revenge in Los Angeles so taut that you could floss with it. It couldn’t be further from the lives of yuppies in San Francisco described in Vikram Seth’s The Golden Gate. When Anthony Silvo takes a job as a dog catcher his life intersects with the mysterious plans of Lark, a werewolf (despite that these creatures turn into more or less your domestic sort of canine, “weredog” doesn’t really resonate) who leads his pack – essentially a criminal gang – according to a philosophy that values biding one’s time and resorting to violence only when necessary.

There are at least two other packs operating on the city's streets that employ quite different methods to survive. One of them is a death squad for hire, wiping out small crystal meth labs at the behest of employers unknown.

Each pack has one female member, and Lark sends his – she remains nameless – to charm Anthony. It’s here that Sharp Teeth really powers up, with the woman falling for Anthony even as Lark is betrayed and his pack slaughtered. From this point on the woman’s desire to escape the bloodthirsty life she’s been living, and Lark’s desire for revenge, as well as numerous other sub-plots, build to a furious climax.

Barlow attempts a woolly, Native American-related explanation of where these lycanthropes originated, but wisely keeps it brief. Much better are the small details that make the fantasy believable, such as the avoidance of alcohol, cocaine, or anything that quickens the blood.

One pack member can’t go near fried chicken restaurants after a lunchtime visit that turned into a bloodbath. Another pair, making use of their keen senses, are dispatched by Lark to win the pack money by playing competition bridge, which must be the first time the blue-rinse brigade and werewolves have shared the same page.

Alongside the sharp plotting, the poetry is exhilarating to read. By its nature the free-verse form allows for liberal shifts in style, but the aplomb with which Barlow carries this off is often virtuosic, the text reading like Chandler at one moment, a classical epic at another, and even Philip Larkin on occasion.

The book’s emotional register is similarly expansive, moving from the drily witty to the horrific and, often unexpectedly, the very moving. But beneath growls an unbroken note of menace. You would be in the blameless majority for thinking that a verse novel wouldn’t keep you on the very edge of your seat, but Sharp Teeth will prove you wrong.

SHARP TEETH by Toby Barlow

Heinemann, £12.99; 320pp

Buy the book here for the offer price of £11.69 (free p&p)

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