Book Review: Monster Hunt

Monster Hunt

by Tim Dinsdale

Acropolis books, 1972 edition, 295pp. 

This is a book from what one might call the golden age of monster hunting, back when everything seemed possible and eager adventurers scoured the globe. 

Tim Dinsdale is most famous for his 1961 film of the Loch Ness Monster. He would go on to take part in many more monster expeditions and photographic efforts. In this book his writing brims with hope, optimism, and digs at “science.”

Dinsdale feels that organized science is ignoring what he thinks is definitive evidence: not only his film, but multiple-witness sightings from different locations and the entire body of reports and stories about the monster.

Dinsdale goes on to look at sea serpents: not surprisingly. these are his second-favorite creatures. Most of the stories are familiar to readers of Heuvelmans or Gould. 

Dinsdale branches out into reporting and commenting on everything from giant catfish in South America (which are not entirely out of realm of possibility), blob-like carcasses washed up around the world, and Amazonian snakes, some allegedly over 100 feet long. Until I first read this book, I’d never heard of the claim by fishermen who caught and examined a small mermaid and let it go. It’s surely a hoax, but it’s interesting reading. The same is true for the tale of whalers who claim they’ve seen an animal with no visible features except a huge black back they've never gotten close enough to harpoon.

Dinsdale recounts his own expeditions of the Loch including the famous 1971 sonar expedition. He includes photographs of sonar charts and claims that the loch houses caves and overhangs that might conceal a monster. Dinsdale does not reject conventional explanations in some cases, but he's certain there’s enough to prove the monster’s existence. It’s unfortunate that Dinsdale never got the evidence he wanted or the success he thought was surely just around the corner. One puts away this book with a bit of sadness knowing, in 2022, that this romantic quest ended in the same ambiguous realm where it began.