Three Men Seeking Monsters: Six Weeks in Pursuit of Werewolves, Lake Monsters, Giant Cats, Ghostly Devil Dogs, and Ape-Men (Paperback)

~ Nick Redfern (Author) "My story begins on a hot summer weekend in 1997..." (more)
Key Phrases: psychic backlash, emotional feeding, lake monsters, Mother Sarah, Mystery Machine, Man Monkey (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Ufologist Redfern (Cosmic Crashes, etc.) and two paranormally inclined pals, Jonathon Downes and Richard Freeman, take the reader for a rollicking, often alcohol-infused ride in a camper during the summer of 2001, "chasing monsters around the British countryside." Redfern dredges up a number of secondhand, sometimes centuries-old accounts of "de-evolved" humans and other odd creatures, even once citing Daniel Defoe, an author well known for his tendency to mix fact and fiction, on the existence of wild men in the West Country. At one point Redfern remarks, "Jon was unsure of the cause of all this mystery and mayhem, but speculated that some form of ethereal, superior intelligence coexisted with us—and had done so for millennia—and that, for reasons of its own, was constantly manipulating and molding the human mind with images of bizarre and unexplained phenomena." Some may feel that’s as good an explanation as any for the elusive beings they investigate. At the end of their quest, Redfern and his colleagues weren’t disappointed—nor will like-minded readers be after finishing this cheerful excursion into the occult fringe.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Picture three British "blokes"--a bald-headed punker (the author), a Goth herpetologist who dresses like a pirate, and a six-foot-six-inch, 400-pound behemoth who wears a Sherlock Holmes cap--in a recreational vehicle and six weeks off to investigate monsters, and you have grasped the essence of this one. Many books about mystery animals involve an expedition to some exotic locale, where the adventurers encounter stinging insects, infectious diseases, uncompromising terrain, and uncooperative indigenous peoples. Redfern's travelogue, however, takes place entirely in Great Britain; the lads are on a quest to find the truth about such creatures as the Man Monkey of Ranton, the Big Gray Man of Ben Macdhui, and a gryphon in Glastonbury. Despite an insatiable thirst that leads them to many pubs along the way, Redfern and his companions manage to get within chasing distance of two or three of these folkloric critters. Their explanation for what takes place is almost as bizarre as the beasts themselves, but this is a lively and entertaining crypto-zoological road trip. George Eberhart
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Pocket (March 2, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743482549
• ISBN-13: 978-0743482547
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #543,416 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Rollicking Good Time For All, September 26, 2004

By	Mark Newbold (Pittsburg, KS United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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Mr. Redfern and his merrie band of British fortean eccentrics takes us on a journey the likes of which we have not seen since the days of Dr. Johnson sojourning to the north or the askew tales of Laurence Sterne. These blokes are the kind that you'd like to know for serious drinking and tale telling round a fireplace. Yet their historical research is sound, students of local fortean folklore will note. I find the tulpa theory neither "tired" nor overworked in throwing light on incidents of the unexplained. What Mr. Redfern & company do is synthesize the "passport to magonia' ideas of Jacque Vallee with the trickster/metamind theories of John Keel along with their own experiences while on this madcap road trip. The tulpa idea has merit and is worthy of further exploration. The cast of characters encountered in this work range from the frighteningly memorable to the freakish and pathetic. On the whole this is not a scholarly exploration of the paranormal, but if you're as weary as I am of anal retentive pontification or blind belief as with most paranormal books today, this is refreshing & fun.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars WHAT A FABULOUS READ!, March 24, 2004

By	Lori Bell (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

I have just finished reading Nick Redfern's Three Men Seeking Monsters and wanted to say that for anyone interested in subjects like lake monsters, Bigfoot, werewolves and other strange creatures this is a book you must read. I have read other books on cryptozoology that I found boring but I enjoyed this one particularly because the author wrote it in a style that made you feel that you were there with them on the adventure. I thought it was an atmospheric and exciting book and the perfect thing to read on a dark and stormy night. This would make a great television series and different to the boring straight forward approach that many shows follow. Again, what a fabulous read......you MUST buy this book!

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Great read for adolescents... not so good for adults..., April 13, 2004

By	W. Revis (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

A childhood friend bought this book for me purely out of nostalgia and I grudgingly read it over the course of a weekend.

As a kid, I really enjoyed reading monster and UFO books. Tales of Bigfoot and Yeti fascinated me. As I got older these sorts of books fell out of style with me, mainly because by the time I entered High School I had gained a fairly good grasp on the scientific process and skepticism.

Looking back I realize that my youthful fascination with this type of literature had more to do with an over all fascination with Science Fiction and Fantasy. I consider these books to be "reality fantasy" - completely unverifiable, yet spooky stories best to be read for the fun of it and not to be taken seriously.

The book puts forth the tired Tupla theory, which is that strange creatures and UFOs are not physical but rather are thought projections. As the book tells it, there is a realm of immaterial sprits all around us who somehow feed off our emotions by visual manifesting themselves as Aliens, Werewolves and Wild Men. It's very contrived to say the least and ultimately causes the book to fail. Not once throughout the book does the author mention mental illness, hallucinogenic drugs or other more down to earth causes for some of the phenomena he recounts, although he does mention that some eye witnesses may have been influenced by works of fiction and over obsessive imaginations. Still, the author cannot escape painting himself into a corner of discredit due to a simple lack of believability.

What I enjoyed most about this book were the exact things I enjoyed about other Fortean style literature as a child: the chilling second hand accounts of strange sightings and events. Sadly, this book is only partly about historical accounts of Wild Men and Unexplained Big Cats. The majority of the book is an amateurish attempt at recounting drunken (and possibly drug induced) misadventures of a trio of English misfits.

At times, the book is very bloated as the author meanders off subject to relate a nightmare or other experience he or someone he knew had. Overall, the book could probably be cut to half the size and made infinitely more readable. I've personally read better self published works before and I'm led to wonder if the editor was asleep at the wheel on this one, or perhaps thought the readership wouldn't be expecting too much anyway.

I give the book two stars instead of one because I think that young readers - perhaps middle school age - would enjoy it. Over all, the book isn't too poorly written, although the author's habit of starting each chapter off with a lyric from a Ramones song grew old quickly and flags him as having poor style.