Beneath the inky black surface of Lake Ness lurks something too monstrous for this world…
Gerry Lawson, a washed-up scientist slowly recovering from a life that got out of his control, finds himself saying yes when his cousin Marnie asks him to help her and her partner Jim with an outdoor survival program for disadvantaged kids. Not quite sure what he’s let himself in for, he slowly adjusts to the isolated environment of Lake Ness and the challenges of living with a bunch of often erratic and unpredictable teenagers.
However, it’s not long before their best-laid plans start to unravel. Some of the kids aren’t too good at obeying the rules of the camp, Gerry finds himself dragged back down into memories he’s been trying to avoid, and Marnie and Jim have had a falling out. The FBI is also sniffing around and everyone knows that they don’t generally like to spend money unless it’s money well spent.
On top of everything else, there’s something large and dangerous living in the lake and as impossible as it sounds, Gerry is starting to think they’ve discovered some long-extinct aquatic dinosaurs living in this isolated waterway, creatures who are rapidly developing a taste for human flesh. Someone is going to have to step up to be a hero before more lives are lost and it looks like Gerry is that man. Unfortunately, volunteering to be a hero was never one of Gerry’s preferred career choices.
Lake Ness – extinction is about to be redefined.
A mash-up between Jaws and Jurassic Park – a must-read for fans of the killer creature genre
Free on 1st - 2nd Aug 23
Reviews:
Beneath the inky black surface of Lake Ness lurks something too monstrous for this world… Gerry Lawson, a washed-up scientist slowly recovering from a life that got out of his control, finds himself saying yes when his cousin Marnie asks him to help her and her partner Jim with an outdoor survival program for disadvantaged […]
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Reviewer: Angel for Bookangel.
Ex-alcoholic Gerry is roped into helping his cousin, Marnie, run an outdoor camp for difficult children. The location is an unfinished government camp in the middle of nowhere next to a large lake. Helping them is Jim, Marnie's boyfriend, and they are responsible for 11 teenagers and one kid. Notable among them is Corey, who has trouble with following orders, Leigh who enjoys making the men uncomfortable and Ben, the youngest who is fascinated by dinosaurs. At the camp, they find it habitable although the lack of wildlife in the area is disconcerting. After a few days while sorting out a trail for the kids to follow, Gerry and Jim find a submerged jeep buried in the lake followed by a large shape in the water. Things turn for the worse when they leave on a day trip to the nearby town of Montworth and return with their minivan almost out of order and that their radio, the sole means of communication with the outside world, is missing. Gerry then finds that the earthquake that struck the area a while ago has opened a hole from a hidden waterway and is allowing things to cascade through a waterfall and escape into the lake. Tragedy strikes when Gerry takes Jim to source of the waterfall and watches helplessly as Jim falls to his death. As he tries in vain to revive him, he sees the remains of someone being eaten by a large monster and decides that he has to reach the local town as quickly as he can. But the only way to do that is to canoe over the very lake that contains the monsters terrorising the camp.
Lake Ness is more of an science-fiction adventure with monsters thrown in, than a horror story. The plot is fairly straightforward and concentrates more on the characters than the situation they find themselves in. While the children are as obnoxious as you might expect them to be, they come across as those with troubles in their past. The adults are slightly different and you wonder how they came to be taking care of the children in this way as only Marnie seems to have any idea of what she is supposed to be doing. However when you find out how she got use of the camp and some of the other decisions that are made, you begin to wonder if the kids running the camp would be a better idea. The shocks and surprises in the story only really come in towards the end, which means it is hard for the story to build any real tension through the story, with the unfortunate side-effect that the story reveals much of the would-be surprises before they arrive. While it tries to follow the same formula as such classics as Jaws with showing as little as possible, when it does appear it's beyond the time it is expected. The other part is Gerry's plan to canoe over the lake instead of hiking out, while daring, still makes you curious as to why.
There are several threads within the story that don't go anywhere eg. the toy gun that Corey starts with. Also character such as the FBI Agent who arrives, feels like setup for future stories, but feel extraneous to the current one. While reading through there were a few odd sentences that stood out, but overall it was well laid out and the chapters neatly encompassed the beats of the story.
Overall, it is a fun read, it has it's flaws but aside from a few moments it does fill out it's length trying to up the tension as well as exploring the attitudes of the children and their reactions. In some ways, it could have been more interesting in seeing this world through more than one set of eye's than just Gerry's.
Rating: TBCQuicklink to this review
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