With the flying gargoyles exterminated, and his wife’s cancer in remission, Ranger Henry Shore was hoping for a quiet year. No suck luck. Strange, huge creatures have been sighted in the lake, but they might have to take second place to the new enemy that’s turned up on land.

Set only months after the second book, unlike the five year gap from the first, this feels like a more direct sequel. Several supporting characters return and the action escalates. The dinosaurs are back in force, and while the characters are expecting them to stalk and pounce like last time, this time the attacks are brute force and in mass. The army shows up in force.

Some of the attacks are amazingly direct, and in this book, if someone is missing, everyone knows they are dead. In a move I haven’t seen before, the fate of two rangers, one a named and near lead character is stretched out through the book with the readers knowiung what has happened, but the other characters not and proceeding realistically on that basis. It makes it an uncomfortable read in parts.

I have one minor complaint: the cat, Sasha, curls up on someone’s lap part way through and then I don’t think I saw her again during the book. However otherwise I can’t fault the characterisation. The people who make dodgy decisions are ill and under pressure, most of the rest make sensible choices and often die because they were surprised or simply didn’t have enough force for what they were facing.

It doesn’t end at a natural breakpoint like the others. Instead it feels like the end of the beginning rather than a book. No status quo has been restored, and little has been resolved. I’m going straight on to book four, but otherwise that might irritate me.

Good monster attacks, dinosaur issues, and a realistic response from world governments for once, as well as an acknowledgement that the problem is world-wide.