Cryptid Hunters

Plot

Marty and Grace O'Hara are thirteen-year-old twins with differing personalities; Marty is a "mischief maker" with a photographic memory and is very curious; Grace is very intelligent but has a "healthy dose of phobias". They have been attending boarding school in Switzerland. Their parents are photojournalists, however, one day they go missing in the Amazon jungle from a helicopter crash. The twins are consequently sent to live with their uncle, Travis Wolfe, an anthropologist who lives on a private island called Cryptos, off the coast of the state of Washington.

Wolfe has dedicated his life to finding cryptids, which are animals "whose existence has not yet been proven scientifically." During the twins' stay, Dr. Laurel Lee arrives with an egg that is presumed to be a Mokélé-mbembé, a dinosaur thought to have gone extinct, but believed by some to still exist in the Congo. Lee explains that she gave the egg to Dr. Noah Blackwood, a conservationist who is known for his animal theme parks and appearances on television shows. Although Blackwood appears to be sweet and caring, he is later revealed to be a ruthless collector and harvester of rare animals, so Lee has stolen the egg back, but has left her field notes in Blackwood’s lab. Wolfe assembles a team to head to the Congo to contact his local friend Masalito and to find the Mokélé-mbembé before Blackwood gets there. They plan to send Marty and Grace back to boarding school on the same flight.

During the flight, Marty frees Bo, a chimpanzee, from his cage, and they have to find him. Marty and Grace follow Bo down a supply chute in the cargo bay, and discover that both Bo and PD, a teacup poodle, are down there. The chute opens, and they are air dropped into the Congo jungle. Marty uses a device called a Gizmo to find Grace and their animal companions. Wolfe contacts Marty and directs them to a sky house by Lake Télé, but Wolfe's group will not be able to reach there for a week. He explains that they need to avoid Butch McCall, Blackwood's top henchman, and instructs them on how to contact Masalito by using a molimo. Butch spots the children, and reports back to Blackwood, who tells him to find the girl. Butch steals the Gizmo and impersonates Marty in his communications with Wolfe. Grace and Marty eventually reach the sky house, but when Marty leaves briefly to fetch a pack, Grace faints and knocks herself unconscious; Butch and his men abduct her.

Marty calls Masalito with the molimo, and they manage to communicate. Marty realizes Butch has kidnapped Grace. The twins discover that Grace is actually Wolfe's daughter, and Blackwood's granddaughter (Wolfe married Blackwood's daughter and had Marty's parents take care of Grace). Grace, who has had nightmares of various events throughout the story, realizes some of her dreams are actually memories. Wolfe tells Lee that Mokélé-mbembé had killed Grace's mother and tore his leg. Wolfe also becomes suspicious of Marty's communications.

As Marty and Masalito search for Grace, Wolfe and Lee spot a note through Bo's video camera feed. They realize that Butch is hunting them, so they ditch their possible tracking devices. Meanwhile, Grace gives first aid to one of Butch's men who was injured by a silverback gorilla. She later drugs their food and tries to escape while the men are sleeping. One of the men stays awake long enough to alert the others to follow her.

Marty finds Butch and attacks him. He takes back the Gizmo, and throws Butch's boots into the swamp. He catches up to Grace, and they rush into a tunnel of trees. They find the body of Mokélé-mbembé, which Wolfe directs them to burn. They recover its eggs from a nest, and return to the sky house, however, Blackwood and Butch lie in wait. Marty rushes upstairs; Grace follows but is stopped by Butch, who ties her up and is about to put her into Blackwood's helicopter. Marty has Butch and Blackwood hand over Grace by tossing one of the eggs (actually a fake, a ball with motor oil). Lee and Wolfe arrive at the clearing. With Blackwood's helicopter, they fly home to Cryptos.

Reception

A Kirkus magazine review described the story as "a B-movie with email". The "enjoyably rollicking adventures are appropriately cheesy; the stereotypes, though equally fitting, are a bit much." Author Wendy Sparrow wrote that "the book was like the Magic Treehouse kids all grown up and taking on Jurassic Park or Journey to the Center of the Earth." She enjoyed Grace and Marty's "fun and real" personalities. The five-year-old technology was not dated, and the book was surprisingly audience-friendly that she could read it to her seven-year-old son.

Publication

A list of notable formats is as follows:

Accolades

The following states and organizations have placed Cryptid Hunters on their suggested reading lists: