Monster Lake: A Thriller
by J. D. Crayne
WERE THEY MENACED BY MONSTER OR MURDERER?
The little town of Solitaire, located on the shore of lovely Lake Mendocino, has a problem: The tourists are only there during the summer. After Labor Day the place looks more like a deserted crypt in a forgotten graveyard. Local merchants are feeling the pinch and thinking of leaving for the bright lights and big bucks of the Big City. The City Council comes up with a plan to bring people to the town in the off-season. What they have in mind is reviving an old Huchnom Indian ceremony appeasing the Lake God. (Uncle Hank Cross, local wise man, swears it's an old Indian custom, and who are they to doubt him?) Then during the fake ceremony bystanders are horribly murdered in front of eyewitnesses by a very monster very like the one the city hall made out made out of plastic foam and black plastic trash bags. Who is responsible? Some say the genuine monster has returned. Others claim the killings are the work of a clever killer. Either way, the local business owners are wondering if it is time to sell out. Is the town doomed? Then a small band of citizens determined to learn the secret of Monster Lake or die trying. And some of them will!
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The little town of Solitaire, located on the shore of lovely Lake Mendocino, has a problem: The tourists are only there during the summer. After Labor Day the place looks more like a deserted crypt in a forgotten graveyard. Local merchants are feeling the pinch and thinking of leaving for the bright lights and big bucks of the Big City. The City Council comes up with a plan to bring people to the town in the off-season. What they have in mind is reviving an old Huchnom Indian ceremony appeasing the Lake God. (Uncle Hank Cross, local wise man, swears it's an old Indian custom, and who are they to doubt him?) Then during the fake ceremony bystanders are horribly murdered in front of eyewitnesses by a very monster very like the one the city hall made out made out of plastic foam and black plastic trash bags. Who is responsible? Some say the genuine monster has returned. Others claim the killings are the work of a clever killer. Either way, the local business owners are wondering if it is time to sell out. Is the town doomed? Then a small band of citizens determined to learn the secret of Monster Lake or die trying. And some of them will!
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