Date Posted:16:26:16 04/07/06 Fri Author: Syl Subject: The Loch
Thgis was sent in by Peggy B. Thanks, Peggy! This looks good!
TITLE: The Loch
AUTHOR: Steve Alten
GENRE: Popular Fiction
The Loch is Peter Benchley meets Dan Brown. The protagonist, Zachary Wallace, is a marine biologist who was born in Scotland, spending his childhood on the banks of Loch Ness–where he nearly drowned at age 9. Not long after the drowning, Zack’s mother divorced his drunken, philandering father and returned to the United States to start over, and raise Zack.
The story picks up 17 years later, with Zack at the peak of his young career, making a film about his research on the giant squid in the Sargasso Sea. Things don’t go smoothly in this expedition, and the fallout leaves Zack floundering professionally and personally, until one day in May when a visitor comes knocking at his door. Zack’s father is being tried for murder and needs his son to come to his aid in Scotland.
Interjected into the present day story are excerpts of the 14th century diary of Sir Adam Wallace, Black Knight of the Templar, cousin to William "Braveheart" Wallace, and ancestor of our protagonist, Zachary Wallace.
The diary tells of a desperate mission to guard a treasure of Scotland in a cave that leads “tae Hell, guarded by the De’ils ain minions.”
Meanwhile, back at Loch Ness, strange things are happening. Unexplained drownings, and the death of an American tourist start the quest for a madman–or a monster.
