Wednesday 2 September 2020

Roanoke Ridge

Finished August 31
Roanoke Ridge: A Creature X Mystery by J.J. Dupuis

This book takes place in the mountainous temperate rainforest area of Oregon. The main character, Laura Reagan, is a science nerd who runs a website dedicated to promoting science, gathering information on new discoveries and providing information in a friendly accessible way. But she grew up in this part of Oregon and her father shot some of the little existing video that appears to be showing a creature whose existence is debated: bigfoot. Laura spent a lot of time with her father, camping and exploring the wilderness and is comfortable in the outdoors.
Now one of her professors, Berton Sorel, one of only three people that knew where that footage was shot, has gone missing while doing preparatory work for a documentary on the subject. His wife has asked Laura to come as support and to help search for her husband, and Laura is willing. She arrives with a close friend, Saad, a man that one senses that she wishes was more than just a friend. Also going on in the area is an annual Bigfoot Convention. After meeting with the professor's wife, and attending some of the convention talks, Laura and Saad meet with the forest ranger group organizing the search for the missing man. They are assigned a ranger, and an EMT to search with, but as they approach the area, they find more then they bargained for.
With skeptics, fanatics, tourism promoters, and academics the convention goers are prolific and it seems like they are everywhere. But there are other elements in play here as well, including groups of militants armed to the teeth and ready to shoot at anything that moves.
Laura isn't sure who she can trust or rely on besides Saad, and with more bigfoot sightings things only get murkier.
This was a quick and fast-paced read, that I enjoyed. I liked the media quotes regarding bigfoot sightings of the past that headed the chapters, and the scientific discussions that became part of the plot.

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