The Shadowkiller

A suspenseful, tongue-in-cheek adventure inspired by Bigfoot mythology traces the experiences of a hairy monster that stalks its woodland home and wreaks bloody havoc on unsuspecting campers in its quest for apocalyptic destruction. By the co-author of It's in the Book, Bob! 50,000 first printing.

Hansen (Confessions of an Enron Executive with Lynn Brewer) makes his fiction debut with a predictable thriller about the legendary North American ape-man Bigfoot. After a fire set by humans claims the lives of a male Bigfoot's family, the creature goes on a rampage of revenge, killing and devouring countless victims in the Pacific Northwest. The authorities first get a sense that something unusual is transpiring when several people disappear, and large, mysterious tracks are found in the vicinity. Three men with different agendas track the beast: Ty Greenwood, a former software mogul shunned after he earlier reported sighting a Bigfoot; Chief Ben Eagleclaw, a Native American actor with a spiritual connection to the creature; and sheriff's detective Mac Schneider, who first finds concrete physical traces of the rampaging animal. Light on science and full of gruesome violence, this isn't in the same league as Jurassic Park, Jaws or Philip Kerr's Esau, an intelligent speculation concerning Bigfoot's Asian cousin, the Abominable Snowman. (Jan.)
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You're forgiven if you think this novel is a spoof. Clearly designed to evoke Jaws-type responses, Hansen's tale of Bigfoot on the rampage features blood, gore, plucky heroes, hapless victims, and a great deal of silliness. First-time novelist Hansen believes in the existence of Bigfoot (although evidently, from his afterword, he does not know that the famous 1967 Patterson Bigfoot footage has been exposed as a hoax), and he really wants us to take the book seriously. Many scenes are well written, but overall the book is more reminiscent of Claws, a murderous-bear movie made a couple of years after Jaws: it has all the same basic ingredients, and it tries to be scary, but you can't really take it seriously. Although a failure as a serious thriller, the book is a rousing success as a campy, brainless, unintentionally humorous blend of adventure and horror--just the sort of thing that kids of an earlier era used to enjoy at the Saturday matinee. David Pitt
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