Now, while these creatures generally do try to keep humans out of their affairs, Lyndsay is asked to solve the murder because it turns out that many of the factions don't fully trust one another and she's seen as a neutral third party. So she goes about questioning folks, including Nessie herself. (I mean, Cerberus was already there guarding the portal to the underworld anyway and it only took one new squeaky toy to get him out of the way.) Lyndsay learns a lot about the collective world of mythic creatures while investigating, but has difficulty getting any closer to solving the murder before everyone has to return to their respective homelands at the end of the weekend. I won't spoil the ending, of course, but she does have an epiphany about herself that leads her to understanding the murderer's true motive, thus allowing her to pinpoint the culprit and solve the mystery. Mythic justice is served, and Lyndsay is able to move on with her life, earning the respect of her employer and, more significantly, herself.
The first thing that struck me about the story here is that creators Paul Cornell and Rachael Smith start with the assumption that the reader has a base knowledge of cryptids and mythical creatures. So they don't waste any time explaining what a Bigfoot is or how it might be different than a Yeti or a Skunk Ape. But if you come to the story without any of that knowledge, it doesn't really hamper your reading of it at all. It's mostly sufficient that you know the Chimera is a thing; every creature that's gemaine to the story is clearly identified by name and any relevant traits are mentioned in a contextual way.
What's interesting, then, is how their collective mythologies are explained in the story. Basically, how the story world operates if there are indeed yōkai and trolls and eloko and all these different creatures sharing the planet with us, but we don't have definitive proof of any of them. And also why we have what 'evidence' we do have!
Of course, this is all built off the original tales, regardles of where they came from, and several 'obvious' contemporary sensibilities are mentioned. The Slender Man has body image issues, for example, and the Dragon's 'happy place' is eating a knight. In case Smith's cartoony style of illustration wasn't an immediate tip-off, it's this kind of approach to the writing that makes the book fun. The convetion set-up, too, means that we can touch on a lot of different characters and focus on them -- or not -- depending on how much mileage can be gotten out these types of jokes/references.
When I was a kid, I had a couple of books by Norman Bridwell (best known as the creator of Clifford the Big Red Dog) in which he tried a similar tactic with classic movie monsters. If your werewolf gets sick, for example, do you take them to the veterinarian or a regular doctor? How often do you need to need to unwrap your Mummy to clean their bandages? It was entertaining, certainly, but since he limited his purvue to only four creatures (werewolves, mummies, vampires, and Frankenstein monsters) some of the jokes stretched thinner than others. By pulling from the pantheon of the entire planet, Cornell and Smith don't run into that issue.
I have to admit, too, that I was a bit surprised that Lyndsay has a legitimate emotional story arc for herself, too. And not just, "I'm all about logic, so I can't believe in fantasy creatures" but an emotional notion of self-discovery that's multi-layered as well. There's a flashback early on in which we see her with her previous boyfriend, and that sets up the character arc, but we're not limited to that. They organically tie it in with both her mother and her employer as well, but never in a blunt, hit-you-over-the-head fashion. They seem like casual dialogue in the moment, but connect together very nicely towards the end. And, as I mentioned earlier, it's ultimately her emotional journey here that helps lead her to discovering the murderer.
Who Killed Nessie? is a pretty fun read. Particularly if you have/had any interest in mythology, folklore, and such. The book came out from Avery Hill Publishing yesterday, so you should be able to pick it up from your favorite bookstore now. It retails for £14.99 UK.
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