Crics: A Cryptid Thriller

by Edward J. McFadden III

A hub of scientific innovation burns, and its ashes ride an easterly wind. What was for a brief time is no more, but the ecology of Long Island is forever altered...

Terror crawls from the shadows and Scott Ward emerges from his mundane existence into a waking nightmare.

Mutant camelback crickets with razor-sharp teeth prowl the streets, turning the village of Stones Throw into a battleground where survival becomes the only instinct and due process is a bullet. As the infestation grows and the town’s charming facade deteriorates, fear tightens its grip and Ward is forced to grapple with the primal choice of flight or fight. Scuttling horrors hide in every shadow, and each move plunges him deeper into the harrowing abyss of his once-familiar world.

Can Ward and his companions escape the monstrous onslaught, or will Stones Throw and its citizens succumb to an unspeakable fate?

From the author of A Cryptid Horror Thriller, The Cryptid Club, and Crimson Falls comes Crics, a fast-paced cryptid-thriller filled with deadly creatures so real you’ll feel the mutants crawling on your skin.

Please… don’t forget to click the FOLLOW button on Ed’s Amazon page for new release alerts.

Genres: Horror

192 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 3, 2024

About the author

Ed cut his teeth reading John Christopher, Tolkien, Poe, Brooks and Zelazny, and graduated to Joe Haldeman, Allen Steele, Arthur C. Clark and Jack Vance. For the last twenty years he’s done a deep dive on apocalyptic fiction, and he really enjoyed learning at the feet of Elmore Leonard, Philip K. Dick, Lawrence Block, Ray Bradbury, Carl Hiaasen, Stephen King, Joe Lansdale, and F. Paul Wilson. His recent publications include Hell Creek, Too Much Grit, The Cryptid Club, Keepers of the Flame, Quick Sands, Sandbagged, Dogs Get Ten Lives, Barracuda Swarm, Dinosaur Red, Drop Off, and Jurassic Ark. His sea thrillers, The Breach and Shadow of the Abyss were Amazon #1 Best Sellers and the audio version of The Breach was a #1 Hot New Release. His other novels include Throwback, Sea Tremors, Primeval Valley, AWAKE, The Black Death of Babylon, and HOAXERS. He lives on Long Island with his wife Dawn, and their daughter Samantha.

Reviews

[Horror Bookworm Reviews · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Horror Bookworm Recommendation
Crics by Edward J. McFadden III
https://horrorbookwormreviews.com/

Located in Stanton Island, New York, a biological laboratory is experimenting with ground-breaking research. However, when the burning of chemicals causes an unusual plume of smoke, a horrific byproduct is released upon the innocent. Better known as a spider-cric, the everyday Camelback Cricket has been directly effected by this phenomenon as well. Humanity has somehow turned itself off, and mutant insects of various sizes have become the hunters of flesh.

Crics by Edward J. McFadden III is the ultimate creature feature novel. Humped back, icicle-like teeth, snapping pinchers and bulbous eyes all come at you in various shapes and sizes. These vicious fantastical monstrosities are the primary antagonists that create a creepy atmosphere. Further more, these unusual species of cave/spider crickets come in sizes small, large, jumbo and behemoth.

I love how Crics literally takes off from page one and never slows down. Not to mention this author knows how to establish the sights, sounds and smells of an apocalyptic takeover by predatory life forms. Not unlike zombies, it’s the number of these beasts that will eventually cause your demise. A plethora of jump-scare moments await the reader like a cat-sized mutant bug waiting in the damp dark corner of your basement.

Aggressive, surreal and violent would be my chosen words to describe this reading experience. The Emergency Broadcast System is publicly warning the threat of a national crisis. Stay tuned to your local channels for more information on where you can seek assistance and shelter. (insert high pitched attention grabbing tone here) A five star ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Horror Bookworm Recommendation.

[Ziggy Nixon · Rating 5 out of 5]

The creature was some type of camel cricket. A freak of nature, a crossbreed monstrosity that shouldn’t be.

Now that's what I'm talking about! Back when I started my "October Creepy Crawler Reading Challenge" in late September (ok, I jumped the gun, so sue me), "Crics: A Cryptid Thriller" by Edward J. McFadden III has been exactly what I was looking for in a insect-themed creature feature! Don't get me wrong: I've found other hidden gems under old logs and moss-covered stones during my run, but "Crics" really checked all the boxes for me! A plausible but not over-explained "origin story"; strong characters that showed real growth even in the face of tragedy during their ordeal; a constantly changing and ever-more-exciting battlefield; and a cool, "is there more?" ending that didn't have me tossing my Kindle through the TV in frustration. So check-a-roo on all of these points, even if I have to get this out of my system: crickets of ANY size are not cryptids. OK, I feel better.

In the swirling mass of Crics he saw his death. There was no way they would survive this.

But I have to admit I was a tad skeptical to start this book at all, as I had recently read McFadden's "Tragic" which featured not only the Ozark Howler (definitely a cryptid) but also a massive and very bloody highway pile-up (not a great setting) plus a redneck with boundary issues. Not to dwell on that experience for too long, but needless to say I was less than enthralled. In fact, my decision to ultimately check out "Crics" from Kindle Unlimited was with the caveat of giving the author one more chance before writing off his catalogue completely (I can be a bit harsh but I am picky as hell). So, yeah, I'm glad I did, as this story wound up rivalling some of the better chapters in Anthony J. Melchiorri's signature "The Tide" series, albeit without all the zombies and oorah military jargon thrown in.

The chatter of the Crics was like sandpaper being dragged through his anus.

Without being flippant - heck, I can't even do somersaults anymore - I really felt that the key difference with this tale is that McFadden took a much more KISS approach. Again, there was nothing all that complicated to get things started and as such no need to dwell on "who did this and why", thankfully avoiding then the usual government shenanigans, secret labs filled with nefarious projects for the military, or meteors from distant galaxies falling in such a way as to combine all these aspects into one mess of a conspiracy! The accident happened, the fallout was unexpected but obviously significant, and our cast and crew were fighting for their lives before you could even notice your 24-hour deodorant had stopped working 2 days ago. Even setting up how many of the characters reacted initially and then later in the story was handled very well. For example, this all starts with a seemingly "throw away" inner monologue about marriage satisfaction - but as the story progresses, it made all the difference in the world! So kudos for making the people very real that we meet!

I’ve known something big was coming for a while. This world is going to shit.

If fact this crew EJM3 assembles - from the octogenarian next door to the preppers down the road and more - were no stranger than any neighborhood collective you come across in most of the Western world these days. Extremely convenient, yes, but still believable. And even the response and/or lack thereof of our government ("Something needs to be done!") and the US military - keeping in mind we're right on the border of New York City (well, 50 miles away) - was plausible. Sure, we got to use the Hellfire missiles a few times - which was SWEET! - but when it comes to making the hard decisions about whether or not to wipe out the populace in the name of saving the Populace with a capital-P, well, it was spot on! Yep, seeing that they had the concept of a plan that they'd be announcing any day now was pretty accurate, even frighteningly so. Especially when you look at the news these days out of North Carolina or in the next hours for Florida and realize how close our nation came to having FEMA cancelled. Remember that at the polls, y'all. Please!

Everyone knew the U.S. government wasn’t above sacrificing a few of its own to save the world.

But back to more manageable disasters like the abundant 3- to 4-story tall grasshoppers… There were even parts to the story that I found rather amusing, even though I wouldn't take any monetary bets on whether or not they were meant to be funny. Only I found it a bit LOL-able that we steadily but surely chart the growth of the crics based on which other beasts they resembled in size. We go from crics the size of a dime or a basketball to poodle-/dog-sized crics (I'm assuming this implied bigger dogs than said poodles), then on to deer-, deckchair- (is that a mammal?), as well as back down to cat- and rat-sized ones. But then it gets wild as the man-sized crics show up, only to be outflanked by beaver-sized crics (noting us city folk couldn't guess the size of a beaver even if it began slowly chewing on us). Oh but it didn't stop there as soon we're moving on to horse-, grizzly bear-, elephant-, and even ultimately Kaiju-/Godzilla-sized crics that are soon stomping the bucolic Long Island neighborhoods to nothing more than mush. But it still made for exciting reading as the situation becomes more and more dire. I was thrilled out of my creature feature loving shorts!

The queen Cric was four stories tall, its arced rear legs and 20-foot antennas rising even higher.

And where McFadden really played things just to perfection was during the "Great Escape" sequence. Beasts, wanton destruction, even the onslaught of their fellow man threatened to end our valiant crew's last hope for survival. No one is spared and with the added pressure of an unknown illness threatening to really upset things (with possible cric mind control in play, he whispered), it just had me reading well into the night. Seriously though, I try to get in 100- to even 150-pages of reading a day if at all possible, but I did not put this down until I was done! I mean, when the thing happened to Desmond and then we see the other thing Desmond does (no spoilers, no spoilers!!) I was doing my darndest not to scream out so late at night! But it was delicious awesomeness covered in awesome sauce. Needless to say, I think it's something everyone would enjoy reading, too. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go put the final touches on our safe room and buy a few dozen more high-powered rifles. You know, just in case… do you smell smoke?

[joshua penrose · Rating 4 out of 5]

The giant monster market is flooded with crocs, Bigfoot, snakes, and sharks so it is incredibly refreshing to get a story with a news monster. The story follows the path of a zombie narrative more than the typical giant monster book. It’s a fun tail filled with clear understanding of the geography of Long Island.

Pros:
+ great monsters and a very simple story of why they’re there
+ fun main character group of average suburban folk
+ our main pet doesn’t die and is in fact often a hero
+ great ending

Cons:
- if you don’t know Long Island and want to know where the hell they are or what is going on look at a map.
- everyone can shoot well?? Out of everything I may have found that the hardest to believe (giant mutated crics aside)
- maybe it’s just me… but what’s with all the lip licking in the descriptions

Overall q very enjoyable read. If you dig on zombie survival and giant monsters this gives a very good balance of the two.

[Terry and dog · Rating 4 out of 5]

An insect creature feature. A small group of people in a neighbourhood fight for their lives against a unique infestation. There is action galore all the way through. I enjoyed this a lot and read it in one go.

[Paul Pope · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a traditional cryptid tale, more of a DC/Marvel villain origination story. A toxic cloud creates a legion of super crickets on NY’s Long Island. Definitely more sci-fi fantasy than cryptid lore.
The timeline is masterfully structured and the suspense is evenly paced. I especially appreciated the time spent within Janet’s home, the growing tensions among the dwellers, and the eventual abandoning of the homestead. Quality horror.
It’s a chemonuclear Armageddon, and not traditional cyptoterror. I feel a little duped by the title but have no regrets.
Cannot recommend.

[Kathy Jackson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Afraid it won't make a favorite list and won't be one I re-read - but a decent bug horror.