An almost exhaustingly detailed examination of an unusual, little-known cryptid that haunted a small town in Iowa for three days in 1903. Lewis, Voss and Nelson have really jumped into the story of the Visitor waist-deep.

The book begins with a short history of the town of Van Meter, along with an exact chronology of the events surrounding the Visitor sightings (as detailed by newspapers of the time, anyway) and brief, but detailed biographies of all the principle witnesses.

The second part of the book explores theories as to what the mysterious creature might have been. Ideas range from a deliberate hoax, to mass hysteria fed by a few odd, but naturally-explained events, to misidentification of large birds (though the writer of that particular essay dismisses all possible culprits) to the possibility that the Visitor was an alien or perhaps something even more bizarre.

My personal favorite (from a speculative fiction standpoint, anyway) is Nelson's theory that the creature may have been an ultraterrestrial- a term originally coined by paranormal investigator John Keel which refers to a being from a dimension adjacent to ours that temporarily slipped into our reality through a "window" in space and time. It's a really interesting idea and even if I don't entirely believe it, the concept of ultraterrestrial beings makes for great story material.

If there is anything negative to say about the book, it is only that the writers seem to have concluded from the beginning that the Visitor was indeed a real, probably supernatural creature and not something with a more mundane explanation such as a hoax (stories of bizarre flying monsters in the American West were actually fairly common in newspapers of the 19th and early 20th century, and were widely known to be fabrications made to drum up interest in the paper, much like the weird stories from the old Weekly World News tabloids).

Regardless, the authors obviously have a deep love for what they do, and an admirable respect for the people of Van Meter. Which translates to an enjoyable read about an intriguing, obscure bit of cryptid lore. ( )