Following MEG: PRIMAL WATERS, author Steve Alten returns to H20 for another underwater tale of terror, THE LOCH.

Dr. Zachary Wallace is a young marine biologist left terrified of the water after a recent, near-fatal brush with a giant squid. Now out of a job, he’s called back to his half-a-world-away hometown in Scotland when his estranged father is arrested on a charge of murder after pushing a business associate into Loch Ness. The guy never surfaced, and the elder Wallace swears it wasn’t he who killed the man, but the mythic Loch Ness Monster.

Partly out of scientific curiosity and reluctantly out of familial obligation, Zachary – a descendant of BRAVEHEART subject William Wallace – must face his fears and survey Loch Ness for clues, all while the famous body of water turns into a media circus … and feeding frenzy, as various tourists fall prey to whatever predator lurks within those waters.

Alten seems to have inherited the mantle of this generation’s Peter Benchley; this is his fourth novel (and first outside of the MEG series) to feature a water-dwelling killer creature, and yet he’s not remaking the same book, even if they share the basic man vs. nature plot. If it were merely about that, the novel would be bone-dry, but Alten also weaves in family dysfunction, courtroom drama and a centuries-old conspiracy involving the Templar Knights.

As with the MEG series, the climactic showdown is actually one of the least exciting parts, because these books are all about the buildup of the mystery. My main problem with THE LOCH lies in the decision to put all of the Scottish characters’ dialogue in true Scottish dialect (i.e. “Michty aye, Dr. Wallace. Ye do get a’roond, dae ye no’?”), but luckily not every character is Scottish.

But the characters are interesting (twice Zachary has to turn down casual sex because of his condition) and the action moves along at a fast clip. I always find Alten’s books compelling, and this one so much that I read all of its nearly 500 pages in a single day. Well-researched and well-written, THE LOCH is another worthy effort from the always-fun Alten.