The greatest appeal of The Hour of the Wolf lies in the atmosphere of the Alaskan wilderness and the exciting race that pits man against nature. Patricia Calvert's style is direct, offering a wealth of detail ranging from descriptions of sleds and outfits to the methods of training the dogs and the type of food taken on the trail. Once the race gets started, the reader is drawn into it by Calvert's graphic account of the raw physical demands as well as the harshness of the land.

The characters are believable and interesting. Patricia Calvert has an ear for natural dialogue, and her sentences are full of dog racing terms and Alaskan slang, words like "musher," "the big I," and "Insider," which lend authenticity to both setting and speech.

Drama is built up by a feeling of expanse and solitude that threatens to overpower the racer...