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Bestiary

by Robert Masello



      For a thousand years the Al-Kalli family have owned a secret treasure, a beautiful illuminated manuscript depicting the creatures that once roamed the Garden of Eden. Now Iraq is devastated by war, so Mohammed and his surviving son flee to America, and soon their new home is a vast palace in Bel Air. But it is not just the book that has been their legacy down the centuries, but a menagerie filled with strange creatures. Beth Cox is an art curator who specialises in ancient manuscripts, and Al-Kalli commissions her to restore and translate the book. Meanwhile, her paleontologist husband Carter is excavating the La Brea tarpits and finds a human skeleton, only the second ever to have been found there...

There is quite a lot within these covers, and not all of it fiction. I enjoyed reading about the excavations at La Brea and what had been found there, and the various asides concerning illuminated manuscripts. Of course, this being a horror story there were also man-eating beasties, assorted villains with different agendas, a strange supernatural being, and a cute Lassie-style dog. Enough in fact and more to ensure that the reader is made aware that there is great evil in the world as well as great beauty and wonder. It isn’t particularly gory or scary, but just when I was thinking that it was another Jurassic Park-style tale there are all sorts of interesting plot developments. Like nine-tenths of books, it could stand some editing to bring it all together which would make it more exciting, but apart from this I was mildly impressed.

The Book

Berkley (Penguin Group)
7 November 2006
Paperback
0425212807
Horror - Contemporary - Los Angeles
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Excerpt
NOTE: Some violence

The Reviewer

Rachel A Hyde
Reviewed 2006
NOTE:
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