Crota: A Novel [Paperback]

Owl Goingback (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 1998

When the police of Hobbs County, Missouri find a mutilated man's body on the side of the road, they figure a bear attacked him, except that bears aren't indigenous to their area. The local Indian tribe offers another explanation: Crota, a great beast of legend, has reawakened. As the body count increases, a hand-picked group of hunters stalk the mythical creature through an underground labyrinth where they will discover a horror beyond all imagining...but all too real!

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The energy of a grade-B monster movie pervades Goingback's debut novel. So do that genre's cliches, including the tired theme of the Indian curse. When Hobbs County, Mo., is besieged by the Crota-a brain-munching, bone-crunching bogey of Creek mythology-familiar characters surface: Jay Little Hawk, the Native American game warden who knows the creature's history and vulnerabilities; Skip Harding, the local sheriff whose reacquaintance with his own Native American roots is the linchpin for defeating the Crota; and a host of faceless types who appear just long enough to become the monster's prey. Goingback puts all of them through predictable paces in a novel that's little more than a standard chase-and-capture scenario played out above and below the ground of the small town of Logan. The narrative high points are the accounts of Indian history and legend, which have the flavor of the authentic oral tradition. These clash with descriptive prose that would have been stale in the days of the pulps (a stewardess has "a pair of legs that seemed to go on forever"), but Goingback keeps the action brisk and knows where to put the necessary lucky coincidence or happy twist to distract readers from his tale's unwavering simplicity.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews

A first novel about an ancient monster that emerges from beneath the earth to terrorize a Missouri small town. Some shift in a faultline has awakened the monster, which is huge and demonlike, with evil-seeming eyes. It looks something like a bear and has the skin and slithering capability of a reptile. And it's hungry. First, it kills a teenage boy on the way to pick up his date, then the man who discovers him. Then it devours a herd of cattle and the farmer who tries to defend them- -giving rise to cattle mutilation stories among the locals. Bullets won't stop the monster, because it's really a demon. Only magic will work: Goingback, who is Choctaw, pits Jay Little Hawk against the demon, but even he, with all of his hunting lore, must consult with an old shaman to divine just what the demon is and how it can be killed. Little Hawk joins with the local sheriff, Skip Harding, who did battle with the demon and lived to tell the tale, and together the two bring the thing down with a magic, stone-pointed arrow. All of which is extremely similar to--though far less imaginative than--last summer's Christian crossover, Frank Peretti's The Oath. Goingback is readable and his Choctaw lore appealing. But his story quickly drops into the banal suspense of a Dean Koontz or Clive Barker. He isn't, however, any worse. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Signet (December 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451197364
• ISBN-13: 978-0451197368
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,509,647 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I Loved this book!, January 22, 2000

By 

Carl Isonhart (IL. United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Crota: A Novel (Paperback)

I had been seeing Owl's stuff for awhile, but held off on reading it. Then one day I just decided what the heck, pick this up and let's see. Wow, the suspense he builds is in a class all by itself. Nobody writes it like this. I really liked the lack of over-the-top violence, gore and sex. He only put thing's in this book that help to move the story along. He also let's your mind do the work on the just how gory a murder scene is. When the Crota is snacking on a victim, we only know what the sounds are, because the character hearing the sounds can't see what is happening, so nor can we. It's that type of thing that set's Owl apart. Read this book if you want a great horror tale that really moves. Highly recommended. I wish I could give it 4 1/2 stars.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars over rated and underwhelming, March 19, 2001

By 

Michael Bruington Jr. "RPG pack rat" (Yosemite, California USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Crota: A Novel (Paperback)

At heart, this is a very pedestrian monster run amok story. The book waffles between depicting the creature as some sort of prehistoric survivor and an evil spirit. It ends up being just another aimlessly nasty beasty. The plot is predictable. For instance, you can tell who will survive by who has native american ancestry. There is some gore spattered here and there in the usual fashion. There is the predictable inclusion of a stamement on the evils of white men and the virtues of the native american. This sentiment is included in the fate of the characters (see above). This is almost a paint by numbers monster story. Even the climactic battle with the creature lacks punch because it is so predictable.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars AN EXCELLANT BOOK THAT KEEPS YOU ENGROSSED., October 27, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Crota: A Novel (Paperback)

I work with a friend of Owl Goingback who introduced me to this book. I was greatly surprised by what a well written book this was for a first novel. The Indian traditions and folklore were interesting and educational at the same time. Crota was a page turner and I can't wait until I read Owls' next book. He also has two childrens books that I highly recommend.