It’s been more than three decades since author Anne Rice first penned her best selling book, Interview with the Vampire. 

Since then, she’s gone on to sell more than 100 million copies of her books.  Along the way, her stories of vampires, witches and angels helped define a genre of gothic horror.  And many today credit her with inspiring the like of Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight series of books (and films) and Charlaine Harris’ books that became HBO’s True Blood.

But as this new vampire boom was gaining steam, Rice often found herself exploring other topics. In 1998, she returned to the Catholic Church of her youth and turned some of her writerly attention to a series of books inspired by her renewed and deepening faith.

But just two years ago, in 2010, Rice made a public break with the Church, telling CNN’s Don Lemon in an interview that she couldn’t find justification for many of the Church’s politics and practices in the teachings and words of Jesus.

Fast forward to 2012 and Rice has returned to familiar themes with her latest novel, The Wolf Gift.

It’s a modern-day twist on the age old myth of the werewolf, set in the San Francisco Bay area and featuring the character of Reuben Golding, a good-looking, well-to-do, 20-something young reporter for the San Francisco Observer.

Reuben’s sent to do a story on the sale of a grand old mansion and he finds the allure of the place and its captivating female owner become too much to resist.

Following a romantic liaison, he’s awakened by a late night attack at the mansion that leaves Reuben near death.  But as he begins to recover from his wounds…he starts to notice some changes.  

Those deep blue eyes are even deeper.  His hands are a bit bigger…and those feet – now snug in his shoes.

The Wolf Gift differs, though, in many key ways from werewolf tales of yore. And reading its pages, it’s hard not to imagine a TV series or Hollywood film adaptation of it’s story and its protagonist either.