Michael Newtonās Monsters, Mysteries and Man was a bit of a mystery for me for many years. I remembered it from my local library (it was at the Main, which I didnāt go to as much as the closer, smaller Branch). I had gotten it out before a trip to my grandparents' house and I distinctly remember reading it in bed there in almost one sitting. I remembered that it had a garish monster head on the cover and that the title reminded me of Richard Cavendishās Man, Myth and Magic series, but that was all I could remember. Searching, for years, on the internet, turned up zilch.
And then, sometimes, I find that magic combination of words on the right site and boom, there it is, the thing I was looking for all those years. The site in question was Archive.org, so hey, you can read it too. The dust jacket is magnificent, isnāt it?
The text was a bit less noteworthy all these years later. Itās a general survey of crytpids ā Yeti, Sasquatch, surviving dinosaurs, sea and lake monsters, Kraken, Nessie, UFOs ā and the efforts to find and study them. Two more chapters cover vampires and werewolves, but they are half-hearted because thereās no meaningful chance that they are real. And thatās what Newton wants. Heās the opposite of skeptical Daniel Cohen; the whole book is arranged around finding the small holes of doubt in the skepticās argument and filling them to brimming with the hope of the believer. Considering not much has changed on any of these fronts in my lifetime, I donāt expect they ever will. Sorry Mike.
Still, that cover art is an all-timer.
