"Mason Dixon: Monster Hunter" is the latest addition to Eric R. Asher's body of work. This book is actually a novella written for young adults. It introduces us to Mason Dixon, host of a web series, called "Cryptid Hunter". What his viewers fail to realize is there are no special effects on his show...unless you count the ones where the video is purposely fuzzy to obscure the fact that there are plenty of monsters alive and well in the rolling hills of Missouri.
This book should please any urban fantasy fan. Mason hunts monsters to try to save them from being revealed to a society who is unaware that the things that go bump in the night are real. His goal is to save the monsters from extinction. In his quest, he is aided by Emma (his right hand), Himari ( a techie who is enthralled with cryptids), Noah, his handler, and Larry, the owner of a orchard which is really a cryptid preserve. Mason makes it clear to all that he does not kill a monster unless they are killers.
Eric fills this novella with a blend of action, humor and of course the things that go bump in the night that dwell in the rolling hills and hollers of the Ozarks. He introduced me to many new monsters. While I remember Momo (short for Missouri Monster), I had never heard of a gowrow, jimplicute, Ozark howler or a snawfus until this book.
His best character (other than Mason) is Sonny. I had to smile while I read about Mason meeting Sonny...a tech savvy Sasquatch. Mason and Sonny's bonding while drinking Larry's moonshine was a true laugh out loud moment for me.
The only thing that bothered me about the book was the way it opened during one of Mason's cryptid's hunts. I would have liked a little backstory filled in such as how did Mason become a monster hunter in the first place, how he was recruited by the church to be a hunter, how he met Noah, and most importantly...why did his parents name him Mason Dixon?
If you like the urban fantasy genre, I recommend "Mason Dixon: Monster Hunter".
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