Annnd I’m back for the third installment of A Monster Hunter! Did Beast of the North Woods meet my cryptid hunting expectations, and was it as good as A Death in Door County and Death in the Dark Woods? Let’s see.
The Summary
When a local fisherman is mauled to death, it seems like the only possible cause is a mythical creature in the latest puzzling entry in this USA Today bestselling series.
An ice fisherman is savagely mauled to death in Rhinelander, Wisconsin, and an eyewitness claims the man was attacked by a hodag. There’s just one problem with that: it’s well known that the creature is not real and was created by a local hoaxer. So how could an imaginary creature be chomping on local sportsmen?
The suggestion that a hodag killed someone isn’t well received by the townsfolk because of its beloved ties to the town and the money it generates from tourist dollars. Due to this, people begin to suspect the witness is the real killer, especially when it’s discovered he has a tangled past with the victim.
The witness to the attack happens to be the nephew of Morgan Carter’s bookstore employee, Rita Bosworth, who convinces the professional cryptozoologist to travel to Wisconsin to prove that a hodag not only exists but killed the victim.
Clues may be hard to come by, but one thing’s for sure: something killed that man, and that something now has its eyes focused on Morgan.
My Review
Having grown up in Wisconsin (and now not living far away in Minnesota), these cryptid hunting mysteries have been super fun to read. I had never heard of a hodag before and was pretty surprised that the Rhinelander Hodag is a “real” thing! Now I feel the need to go on a road trip to meet some hodag statues.
Anyway, getting to the book! It was a fun read, just like the other two. Morgan is just as curious, the murder is just as mysterious, and the possibility of a living cryptid is just as thrilling.
This time, though, the murder hits a little bit closer to home. Morgan works closely at her odds and ends shop with a lovely woman named Rita. Rita’s nephew Andy has been charged with murder in Rhinelander, and claims he saw a crazy-looking, hodag-like creature in the woods murdering a man. Naturally, the police don’t believe him and arrest him on suspicion of murder.
So, Morgan is called in to investigate. When she sees something out in the woods near the murder site, she starts to wonder if the possibility of a living hodag is actually a little more than just a possibility. She’a always skeptical that these monsters actually exist, so she’s pretty thrown by the sighting.
I don’t want to spoil anything, so I’ll just say that Morgan gets all wrapped up in the investigation and, naturally, gets targeted by someone (or multiple someones?) who doesn’t want her to let any cats out of any bags. She’s also worried that the man who killed her parents is back, trying to find her and possibly hurt her.
Of course, the man she’s casually dating makes an appearance as well and, always concerned for her safety, gets pretty upset by her blatant disregard for her own health and safety during the investigation. She really does do some silly things, like drive off to secluded cabins on her own and wander into various woods.
Like the other two books, I enjoyed this read and was entertained by the thrills, chills, and spills. I did find that the author maybe had to…*reach* a little more for this one? To make it all come together required some interesting things to happen (like, science) and I wasn’t sure I was fully on board with it all. I do love our main character, Morgan, but found a few of her choices to be almost shamelessly dumb. Oh a mysterious note to meet someone in the middle of the woods when I’ve been feeling like my life is in danger? Yep, without a second thought, I’ll go!
Overall, though, I did enjoy Beast of the North Woods and I will remain a ready reader for the Monster Hunter series. They’re such a fun diversion from a lot of what I normally read. What kind of crazy cryptid will Morgan hunt next?? The ending was left open for the next one, so I bet it won’t be too long until we find out.
For what it’s worth, A Death in Door County is still my favorite in the series!
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