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Monster: A Tale of Loch Ness
A monster stirs at the bottom of Loch Ness.
For centureies it has lived in peace,
rising to the surface,
from time to time,
to become a legend in the hills of Scotland.
Now something has arrived to disturb it's tranquility -
the violent, greedy thrust of men in search of oil.
Now the monster must strike to survive,
in an explosion of unimaginable fury
that will rock the world.
A tale of the beast
For centureies it has lived in peace,
rising to the surface,
from time to time,
to become a legend in the hills of Scotland.
Now something has arrived to disturb it's tranquility -
the violent, greedy thrust of men in search of oil.
Now the monster must strike to survive,
in an explosion of unimaginable fury
that will rock the world.
A tale of the beast
374 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published September 12, 1982
2 people are currently reading
194 people want to read
About the author
Jeffrey Konvitz
6 books66 followersJeffrey Konvitz was born in New York City, but after graduating from Cornell University and Columbia Law School, he headed to Los Angeles, where he lives and works as an entertainment finance attorney, producer (The Sentinel and Spy Hard, among others) and novelist. His first published novel (Simon and Schuster and Ballantine) was The Sentinel, which rose to Number 2 on the New York Times Mass Market Best Seller List. The Sentinel sequel, The Guardian, was also a bestseller along with his next book, Monster. He is now at work on the third book in The Sentinel Trilogy, currently untitled, while The Sentinel and The Guardian are being mounted for e-book sales.
This year, his newly-written historical novel, The Circus of Satan, will be published. It is a story of murder and revenge, set during the rise of organized crime in America from 1900 to 1912 when the Irish Mob ruled all major American cities, only to be taken down by its own hubris and the rise of the Jewish and Italian Mobs into labor racketeering and, then, bootlegging. Filled with real events and real heroes and villains, who rampaged from New York's Bowery through to Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas City and Boston, it is the story of epic, transformative times and two violent men, who meet on a descent into blood and Hell.
This year, his newly-written historical novel, The Circus of Satan, will be published. It is a story of murder and revenge, set during the rise of organized crime in America from 1900 to 1912 when the Irish Mob ruled all major American cities, only to be taken down by its own hubris and the rise of the Jewish and Italian Mobs into labor racketeering and, then, bootlegging. Filled with real events and real heroes and villains, who rampaged from New York's Bowery through to Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas City and Boston, it is the story of epic, transformative times and two violent men, who meet on a descent into blood and Hell.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
April 27, 2021
Monster, published in 1982, is obviously a tale of the Loch Ness monster, but this is really a thriller with some horror aspects-- namely, a giant sea monster! Konvitz takes his time establishing the plot, but does so in a methodical manner to be sure. Due to an earthquake and a disaster with a diving team, oil is discovered in Loch Ness, and Geminii oil gets the commission to exploit it. The Loch Ness operation is headed by a guy named Whittenfeld, whose backstory is slowly revealed. His career started during the Biafrian civil war, when the Biafrian government sought out an external oil company to start digging some oil for much needed foreign exchange and Whittenfeld was the man in charge of that concession; alas, the war ended before it was completed. Whittenfeld, however, became bitter about it and determined to exploit the next field he came across as his career had been stymied since then; the Loch Ness field was to be his big score. He hired 'Scotty' Bruce from the states as his number 2 man for the job, despite his reputation as an outspoken maverick against corporate greed (long story, not revealed until the end).
Scotty is determined to keep his ideals in check as this is probably his last chance to redeem himself in his chosen professional career. As the project gets under way, he starts to clash with Lefebre, the man in charge of security at the drill site in the Loch. Lefebre has a very unsavory past in Africa, having worked in Biafra, and then under Idi Amin as his chief torturer. Yet, Lefebre and Whittenfeld have a long past together and that is that.
Besides these main characters (with Scotty being our main protagonist), we have an assortment of others, including Mary Mackenzie, a Scottish nationalist who opposed the Loch Ness dig, and a somewhat crazy preacher named MacPherson, who sees the Loch Ness monster as Satan himself.
Needless to say, the first dig is 'disrupted' by Nellie in a big nasty way, but Whittenfeld is determined to press on with the site. Lots of conspiracies emerge to make the failure of the first dig look like sabotage, but Scotty suspects the truth-- if only he can get some proof!
This was a decent thriller, and I liked the politics involved concerning Africa- who today would reference Biafra to a popular audience? This demonstrates the dated feel, as does the quest for oil during the OPEC embargo. I also liked the historical parts where Mary (as she was falling in love with Scotty) tells the history of Scotland and England. All of this gave the novel a somewhat nostalgic feel; this was probably heightened for me as my first trip to Scotland was in 1982 and I still have some Loch Ness swag somewhere from that visit.
If you have an interest in Scottish or African politics, you may be interested in this, but if not, you will probably be a bit bored. 2.5 stars, rounding up!
Scotty is determined to keep his ideals in check as this is probably his last chance to redeem himself in his chosen professional career. As the project gets under way, he starts to clash with Lefebre, the man in charge of security at the drill site in the Loch. Lefebre has a very unsavory past in Africa, having worked in Biafra, and then under Idi Amin as his chief torturer. Yet, Lefebre and Whittenfeld have a long past together and that is that.
Besides these main characters (with Scotty being our main protagonist), we have an assortment of others, including Mary Mackenzie, a Scottish nationalist who opposed the Loch Ness dig, and a somewhat crazy preacher named MacPherson, who sees the Loch Ness monster as Satan himself.
Needless to say, the first dig is 'disrupted' by Nellie in a big nasty way, but Whittenfeld is determined to press on with the site. Lots of conspiracies emerge to make the failure of the first dig look like sabotage, but Scotty suspects the truth-- if only he can get some proof!
This was a decent thriller, and I liked the politics involved concerning Africa- who today would reference Biafra to a popular audience? This demonstrates the dated feel, as does the quest for oil during the OPEC embargo. I also liked the historical parts where Mary (as she was falling in love with Scotty) tells the history of Scotland and England. All of this gave the novel a somewhat nostalgic feel; this was probably heightened for me as my first trip to Scotland was in 1982 and I still have some Loch Ness swag somewhere from that visit.
If you have an interest in Scottish or African politics, you may be interested in this, but if not, you will probably be a bit bored. 2.5 stars, rounding up!
July 1, 2016
If you think you're just getting a horrific tale about Nessie from the author of The Sentinel, you're underestimating Jeffrey Konvitz. The biggest threat in this story is corruption and greed--as usual, man being more of a monstrosity than a monster.
March 21, 2018
AGH! This book was so bad I'm not even going to bother re-capping what the back of the book said!
The writing style of this novel was so wonky. The conversations and descriptions felt choppy and there was no flow to what was being said. It made it very difficult to read and I found myself having to re-read sentences a few times to make sure I read it right.
And the pacing was so slow. There was so much work talk. I get that you want to have some work talk since it all takes place in your work enviroment, but sometimes I felt like I was getting detailed to death while simultaneously not explaining it properly so we often didn't know what was being talked about.
It was so frustratingly slow to read. Maybe it is just me. I don't know. But I did not like reading this book and I stopped maybe 100 pages in. Maybe it picks up later on in the book. Don't care. That's how frustrating this book felt.
The writing style of this novel was so wonky. The conversations and descriptions felt choppy and there was no flow to what was being said. It made it very difficult to read and I found myself having to re-read sentences a few times to make sure I read it right.
And the pacing was so slow. There was so much work talk. I get that you want to have some work talk since it all takes place in your work enviroment, but sometimes I felt like I was getting detailed to death while simultaneously not explaining it properly so we often didn't know what was being talked about.
It was so frustratingly slow to read. Maybe it is just me. I don't know. But I did not like reading this book and I stopped maybe 100 pages in. Maybe it picks up later on in the book. Don't care. That's how frustrating this book felt.
November 1, 2019
Hmm, I was really looking forward to this, but it wasn't as good as I'd hoped, it wasn't awful, but it could have been so much better..
September 4, 2018
Have read 4 or 5 times. A favorite.
January 20, 2020
About as bad as you might expect a novel subtitled "A Tale of Loch Ness" to be. Why I expected anything else, I'm not sure.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews