Ogopogo [Paperback]

Author/Researcher Arlene Gaal is clearly passionate and dedicated to tracking the many sightings of the famous cryptid lake monster Ogopogo of British Columbia and to being a supporting voice for those individuals who have by most accounts, inadvertently had the experience of encountering this largely elusive aquatic monster.

In her sincere efforts to help substantiate the claims of folks who come to her with their reports, she has accumulated an amazing amount of data over the past several decades in which she has exhaustively spent researching, documenting, interviewing witnesses and archiving records, photos and films.

Though she has penned a couple books prior to In Search of Ogopogo: Sacred Creature of the Okanagan Waters concerning the monstrous animal of gigantic proportions that purportedly inhabits Okanagan Lake, this particular book is the last one to date and plainly demonstrates why Miss Gaal is the unofficial expert and consultant on Ogopogo.

Noted cryptozoologist John Kirk of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club said that "The catalogue of films and video of Ogopogo are more numerous and of better quality than anything I have personally seen at Loch Ness and I believe that several of them are very persuasive that there is a large living unknown creature inhabiting the lake" (2005) and therefore, it is surmised that the Ogopogos could be some of the most credible of the world's lake monsters.

Arlene Gaal has certainly put together a comprehensive volume rich with numerous accounts of the search for Canada's most famous lake cryptid including fascinating sightings from convincing witnesses that I had never heard of.

Gaal's writing style is a bit unconventional in that it's casual, though I attribute that to her exuberance for her subject. In Search also contains many eyewitness submitted illustrations of what they saw along with an introduction to the creature's history and lore known in Indian traditions in which the beast is referred to as N'ha-a-itk meaning "water demon" or "lake monster", so readers particularly interested in folklore and mythology will especially enjoy that section.

My summary -

PROS: Plethora of accounts with Ogopogos, many reports i'd never read before, Gaal presents serious and objective research while remaining conversational enough for the curious.

CONS: Published in 2001 it's somewhat dated. A tad unorganised and I really would have liked to see source citations for many of the reports presented as evidence.

WHAT I LIKED BEST: There is a really cool chronology from the 1700s to 2001 at the end.

Overall, I totally recommended this volume for both those who enjoy pleasure-reading about cryptids and for the more serious cryptozoology researcher and I consider "In Search of Ogopogo" essential for lake monster research.