COVER UPDATES: BEYOND EARTH

Beyond Earth: Man's Contact with UFOs by Ralph and Judy Blum gets a flashy 1978 edition from Bantam Books. See also this sinister 1976 edition. Original publication 1974. 

THE THROWBACKS by Roger Sarac

Were they the elusive Bigfoot creatures ... or something worse? Well, Belmont's back summary kind of gives the game away there, but this is still a pretty good little horror shocker about backwoods monsters and the people who get too close to them. Newlyweds Paul and Joanne Greer hit and run a mysterious man-beast in the Klamath Mountains, and soon enough they're talking to Professor Roos and assistant Mike of the San Francisco Academy of Natural Sciences, who rule out any known animal. Roos says the FBI has every animal hair in the world on file, and if they can't identify it, it must be a new species!

A potential witness in the small town near their accident is found with her throat ripped out, so it's with trepidation that our heroes trek into the wilderness. Fortunately they meet the mysterious Bradshaw brothers, who live alone in their rustic if very well stocked lakeside manse ... or do they? Sarac combines Bigfoot folklore with gothic thrills and while we aren't exactly surprised by the outcome, he unspools everything with enough care that we're invested and pleased with the results.

Author Roger Sarac is actually wildlife advocate, dog show host, and former ASPCA president Roger Caras (1928-2001), using a simple pseudonym for his single attempt at a fiction thriller. This story obviously has parallels to his nonfiction work, focused as it is on humanity's attempts to coexist with nature and to face the darkness within ourselves that may drive so much of our conflict with the natural world. 

Caras is sympathetic but unsentimental in his portrayal of the monstrous throwbacks, and the gothic/dark house stylings of the story blend well with the Bigfoot hook. It's a surprise that there aren't more thrillers in this vein, given the "forest bride" and missing link elements to the Bigfoot mythos!

In Caras' cold eyed world, danger lurks behind every cellar door, crumbled ruin, and murky shadow around the Bradshaw estate. But then, danger from who? We're them, and they're us, whether we're out-of-towners from the big city or the Bradshaw boys.

Above, the 1969 reprint from Belmont, which tries to up the stakes a little by calling the throwbacks the "most serious threat to ever confront mankind!" Good ol' Belmont ballyhoo!

The Throwbacks earn themselves a 3/4 rating for their tidy little story. They're available to read and download at archive dot org.

Belmont Books, 1965