Loch Ness Revenge by Hunter Shea

After witnessing the deaths of their parents, fraternal twins, Natalie and Austin, vow to rid Loch Ness of its monsters.

I love crytipds, and Nessie, so the name and cover sold this book to me. I expected the revenge part to be from Nessie rather than against her, so that was a surprise.

This is my second Shea novel, and so far I’m impressed by how he can write brutal, violent characters and make them the protagonists.

His writing is fast paced, fun and exciting. There is a certain gleeful abandon about two people from the US and one from Germany going to war against Loch Ness with an extensive arsenal, including rocket launchers and depth charges.

However, looking past the visceral thrills and smooth writing, the subject matter raised deep concerns within me. Is it ok to hunt down the animal that killed a human for food? Is it ok to eradicate an entire species because one animal killed your parents decades before? Substitute rhinos for Nessie, and the narrative gets remarkably less fun, but reminiscent of how animals were often treated in the nineteenth century.

This novel could be likened to Moby Dick, with the Loch Ness Monster instead of a white whale, and lots of things going boom rather than an examination of obsession. Natalie may have lost her parents rather than her leg, but she will not stop until the Nessies, or she, is dead.

While I find the thought of hunting Nessie to extinction abhorrent, and I would have loved more information on the creature that Shea so cleverly portrays in this book, I can’t fault the novel for not going in a different direction. It’s larger than life monster hunting fun and it’s highly entertaining. I hope there will be a sequel where I get to read about the characters destroying Indonesia in an effort to eradicate the Orang Pendek (although I’m appalled as I write that sentence).

I think Shea is very clearly showing who the real monsters are.

I award Loch Ness Revenge…