The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove (Pine Cove Series) [Kindle Edition]

Molly finds a friend - "Steve" [no relation]. Steve's problem requires lengthy explanation - reaching, in fact, deep into prehistoric time. Steve is a shape-shifting, pheromone-emitting oceanic resident who's hungry. And horny. Piqued by a waft of radioactive leakage, Steve wends his way to Pine Cove in search of meals and mating. His ability to disguise himself keeps his mass invisible, but his musk attracts susceptible humans in droves. Molly becomes his mentor and protector, but there are other circumstances interfering with her ability to mother-hen a monster that devours people in a gulp. What exactly, is County Sheriff Burton up to? And what do a psychiatrist and a biologist have to talk about?

Moore's ability to create characters and circumstances is worthy of much applause. It's difficult to identify a "real" person among this assemblage. Yet, none of them is contrived nor severely exaggerated. Even Skinner, a rambunctious Labrador, proves a valid depiction. Psychiatrist Valerie Riordan struggles to keep professionalism, personality and pharmacists in some kind of balance. The intrusion of the monster lizard [?? - we're not certain of its actual shape] nearly tips the balance. Moore, by limiting each vignette to a manageable length, keeps the character development and episodes alive and closely present as you page through the book. It's not something you want to read in bits and pieces - the continuity demands rather close attention. A fine book for a holiday or long air flight, Moore's work rewards the reader for their time and attention.
[stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

It all started when Bess Leander was found hanging from one of her chair hooks, but this wasn't a funny thing- she was dead. She lived in a home that was so free of dust that she drove her family crazy with her obsessive compulsive disease. But it shook Dr Val to the core, 15% of all depressed people commit suicide, and she figured she couldn't go there. She convinced the local pharmacist, who has a strange sexual fixation for sea mammals, to give everyone on anti-depressants a sugar pill. Then the fun began.

The nuclear power plant in town has had a nuclear leak so that the monster in the bay, or Steve, the prehistoric lizard is awakened and oh, my gosh, what a lively monster he is. The other members of the town who are enmeshed in this lively story are trying to sort things out. Molly, the former B-Movie star who augments her parts- first out of vanity, then out of need, the pot head town constable, Theo Crowe, who bumbles so much he causes great concern to the crooked sheriff Burton. There is a bereaved local artist and a biologist tracking anomalous behavior in rats. And, into this mix comes a black, blues singer who plays the guitar like a vixen. This all sounds like my hometown, and yours?

Christopher Moore has written one of the zaniest novels I have read and so much fun. It certainly brought me out of a funk- can't wait to read the rest of his novels. This is a fun lively book and highly recommended. prisrob