The new fiction buzz in the publishing world is actual fact woven eloquently with storytelling fiction.
Like Michael Crichton before him (Jurassic Park, The Andromeda Strain), Steve Alten’s The Loch does this brilliantly. More than a beach read, and one that may leave you cheering for the protag, Dr. Zachary Wallace, Alten may have sparked Hollywood’s climb back to its former movie glory, if they acquire the rights to this book and serve it justice.
There are non readers of anything in your world, as in mine. The Loch is substantive, may have your tanning time pass quickly and give up summertime reality TV in favor of a brilliantly written thriller.
The novel was structured to entice nonreaders and to really keep avid readers guessing what lay in Ness’s chilly waters. Why won’t natives soak their feet? No soul dares to swim in the 23-mile long peat-rich Loch Ness, and if one fished her depths, one better have a battleship-sized tug to do that with. There’s something lying below her surface. Angus Wallace knows this and wants to live to tell the tale. Zachary Wallace may know this and refuses to play the clown in that 1,500 year run the Nessie circus caused.
Taking place on and in the famous Loch Ness in the Scotland Highlands, marine biologist Dr. Zachary Wallace returns to his native homeland, after a boating accident leaves his scientific reputation in near tatters and quite reluctant to deal with his estranged father, to beat his night demons and to see his father vindicated from a murder one conviction of John Cicano. Papa Angus Wallace, throughout the story claiming to be the descendant to the Sir William Wallace himself–the same Wallace Mel Gibson gave a household name to in his movie, “Braveheart”–uses the “Nessie card” as his alibi and possible ruse, to get his son Zack to chase down answers why the most famous European rose to such notoriety.
Enter Steve Alten, doctor of Education, native to Florida and author of a well-researched and masterfully told tale about Scotland’s most infamous and famous body of water. Thousands of sightings, volumes of scientific data, and no solid proof that Nessie lives, Alten will have you, plausibly the tightest skeptic to the unexplainable, believing there’s something living in the black depths of Loch Ness.
Those of you who’re Michael Crichton fans will appreciate the way Alten tells a fact-based story. To stay authentic to the Scots heritage and color, a local brogue was used throughout the novel--if ye ken whit I mean tae this–thus adding texture and richness to the body of the story.
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Adding a twist from the very beginning (remember, now, Angus beams and basks in the glow of his William Wallace lineage) that has the Loch Ness monster reveal itself, Zachary also discovers a well-guarded secret legacy as murky as the waters of the Loch itself.
The only flaw with this read I’ve found, and this is pure opinion, aside from the canned, corny, Brady Bunch-y way Doc Wallace decides to confront his demons and the slightly lackluster ending the book held, Alten is still maturing as a writer. Not having read his previous works (MEG and the Domain series, both spot holders on the New York Times bestsellers lists and can be found on www.stevealten.com), just the technical structure, snappy dialogue and imagery The Loch holds is worth the $28 price tag.
Hard at work on my own writing projects, I found myself more than once taking good mental crib notes in what and where to place certain aspects of my own novel in progress from Alten’s latest work. Even the ass-pompous media slut Dr. David Cromwell is refreshingly tight and crisp, totally teflon to typecasting. Hell, Alten’s maneuverability with Zack’s former colleague puts the highly pious and overtly crass Gilderoy Lockhart and Lucius Malfoy in second place.
And, whereas most writers, while trying to show their protags as strong, daring and capably fearless, don’t allow their readers the joy and wonder of the dark, dingy, barnacle-encrusted underside their protag needs to show to plow through to the end of their quest, it was a joy to find manly Zachary Wallace wearing his vulnerability on his dirty sleeves.
Alten balanced this without having Doc Wallace reaching for the Kleenex too much with adding spice and caustic remarks to his dialogue. Oddly enough, it’s his hard-livin’, bonnie-lovin’, skirt-chasin’ Pops that shows and sheds more tears than does his well-learned kin. Love underlies all the anger, hatred and fear, Alten shows here.
Surprises await the reader at the close of most chapters and in the book’s conclusion. Inserted between story spinning, lie drop quotes of tourists seeing the great beast gianormous figure, jaundiced orbs and mighty head, of selected Darwin text explaining natural selection of such proportions, and text of Dr. Alfred Wallace, possibly Angus and Zack Wallace’s kinfolk Alten explains, exploring the very real plausibility why Europe’s biggest body of water may indeed hold such mysteries.
The Loch or what lies in Ness’s icy darkness isn’t just an Art Bell “Coast to Coast AM” late night talk topic anymore. I highly recommend this book, especially if you’ve ever wondered what lies in Loch Ness ... or even if you haven’t, be assured it won’t get to the sewers of New York City, or dump nightmares on you. Wade in Nessie’s cold waters unawares, though, imaginatively speaking, and you may invite something to slither its way into your dreams.
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