(Editor’s note: Cryptid Quarterly is a feature where I highlight cryptid horror fiction from each quarter of 2024, using Amazon Kindle release dates.)
My third cryptid horror fiction list features the Top 10 plus 18 honorable mentions. The list is topped by a Michael Cole novel in the No. 1 spot plus works by many well-known authors of cryptid fiction like William Meikle, Luka T. Jacobs, Jeffrey B Miley, Lucas Pederson, and Eric S. Brown.
While my favorite cryptid Sasquatch is represented on the list, a variety of creatures showed up in the Top 10, including a predator from space, giant crabs, the Dogman, a Loch Ness monster created by science, a python, and a skinwalker. In the list of honorable mentions, we have giant hornets, more giant crabs, a giant eel, a mollusk, and a Tyrannosaurus rex.
So, without further ado, here’s my list of the Top 10 cryptid horror fiction releases from July 1 through September 30, 2024, along with a list of honorable mentions worth checking out. Clicking on the book titles takes you to their Amazon pages where they can be purchased.
#1. Saurian by Michael Cole. A violent predator, drifting asleep through space for millions of years, has awakened and crash-landed in the backwoods of a quiet Michigan town. With the body count steadily rising, a specialist in locating meteorite fragments must team up with a pair of young resort employees, a rusty small-town police chief, and a lunatic biker to stop the menace.
#2. Crustaceans by William Meikle. Giant crabs descend on a small coastal town before making their way to Manhattan, while a SWAT team tries to hunt them down before the menace gets big enough to rid itself of the city.
#3. Night of the Dogman: Vengeance by Luka T. Jacobs. Book 3 in the Night of the Dogman series has the town of Hickory once again plunged into terror as the legendary Dogman resurfaces, driven by a primal need for vengeance after her offspring is taken. Survivors of the previous encounters join forces with the sheriff and a determined special agent as the hunt for the Dogman becomes a desperate battle for survival.
#4. Sasquatch 46: Northern Lights by Jeffrey B Miley. Two years after a snow monster brought death and destruction to a small Alaskan town during the Iditarod sled dog race, a similar beast makes itself known near Fairbanks only weeks before the city’s largest event, the World Ice Art Championship. Local rangers enlist the aid of the man who killed the original beast plus an Inuit tracker who recruits two mysterious Inuit men known as the protectors to help face the monster.
#5. Monster of the Loch by Lucas Pederson. During World War I, a renegade Soviet scientist spliced together the DNA of a mosasaurus and a plesiosaurus to create a terrifying hybrid before releasing the monstrous creation into the depths of Loch Ness, where it vanished into legend. Years later, a man who inherits a small fortune from a relative in Scotland is tasked with hunting down the beast, which has evolved into a living nightmare.
#6. Constrictor by John Lee Schneider. A man raises a black-market reticulated python from a hatchling. The snake now measures over 24 feet long and weighs more than three-hundred pounds. He keeps the snake a secret from his neighbors, who might fear for their pets or kids, especially if they knew it sometimes escapes her cage.
#7. Prey by Dan Durkee. The usually exceptional fishing in a small Maine coastal town inexplicably dries up as visitors report strange occurrences. A man and his adopted son soon find themselves in the midst of an unimaginable terror when they realize that the culprit behind the disappearances is not any ordinary predator.
#8. Recessive Nature by Brandon Perras-Sanchez. The year is 1985 and two cousins from a lineage of cryptid trophy hunters embark on a dangerous journey to track down the creature associated with the disappearance of their fathers.
#9. Cryptid War by Eric S. Brown. The attacks began out of nowhere with giant alligators crawling from sewers, huge bats swarming New Mexico, an army of Chupacabras invading Texas, and Thunderbirds soaring in the skies searching for prey. All over the world, cryptids emerge from the woods, rise up from beneath the waves, and creep out of dark caves. Humanity’s only hope is to discover what is behind the attacks or face extinction.
#10. Skinwalker by K.T. Tomb. Book 14 in the Creatures series follows three men on the hunt for a creature of legend known as a skinwalker. The creature is rumored to have taken one of the men’s girlfriends who vanished during a visit to Black Mesa. With the help of the Navajo and the Chiricahua people, the men are determined to confront the evil that took her.
HONORABLE MENTIONS
Bayou Bones by Aubrey Campbell
Coluber: G.O.R.E Sector Book 2 by Michael Cole
Cryptid Mine by Max Dane
Evil Eyes 2 by Brian Gatto
Finding Waypoint: The Lockwood Cryptid Chronicles: Book 2 by John Grover
Hidden Cave by Armand Rosamilia
Kill Depth by Steve Metcalf
MOLLUSK by J.A. Johnson
SABER by Jim Fender
Sasquatch 43: Imaginary by Jeffrey B Miley
Sasquatch 44: I Sasquatch by Jeffrey B Miley
Sasquatch 45: Temple by Jeffrey B Miley
Savage Sasquatch by Clyde Lafferty
SPECIES: Cabin 6 by Danielle J. K. Terrell
Task Force E: The Museum by Jason Rubis
The Kielder Prey by Rebecca Fernfield
Tranquility Pond by C.R. Allen
Tyrant by Michael Cole
LIONEL RAY GREEN 
Third? That’s awesome Lionel! 😀 Also love reading your list for the next book I’ll read myself. Appreciate it 😀
Thank you, Luka! I love reading about the Dogman. Keep up the awesome work!