(Editor’s note: The 2024 Cryptid Quarterly Awards are based on the Cryptid Quarterly Top 10 Lists compiled by lionelraygreen.com in 2024. Today’s list features the Top 10 Books of the Year. Click here to check out the Top 10 Authors of the Year released March 12.)
I released the 2024 Cryptid Quarterly Authors of the Year on March 12, and today I follow up with the Top 10 Cryptid Quarterly Books of the Year. I released four Cryptid Quarterly Top 10 Lists in 2024, spotlighting 40 cryptid fiction titles. If you add the 66 honorable mentions, I actually highlighted a total of 106 releases.
Cryptid fiction is my favorite sub-genre of horror. As I mentioned in my Authors of the Year post, I write a column for HorrorAddicts.net called The Bigfoot Files, and I compile a monthly Horror Fiction Top 25 list for MalevolentDark.com. During my research for those two features, I discover quite a lot of cryptid fiction, and that’s the genesis of the Cryptid Quarterly Top 10 Lists.
Where did my love of cryptids begin? Probably when I saw Bigfoot on an episode of The Six Million Dollar Man as a young boy in the 1970s. I personally don’t know any of the authors on these lists, but I suspect a couple of them were probably as intrigued as I was when they watched Bigfoot lumbering through the woods in slow motion to those cheesy bionic sound effects. Of course, Bigfoot isn’t the only cryptid on this list, but he’s far and away my favorite.
While the Top 10 Books of the Year List features stories about Bigfoot, it also includes tales about a vengeful Dogman, a mutant snakehead, and a legendary skinwalker. If you read cryptid fiction, you’ll likely be familiar with some of these books’ writers. Six of them are among the Top 10 Cryptid Quarterly Authors of the Year.
Like with all my lists, I use a personally developed point system with a combination of factors, including Amazon/Goodreads ratings and reviews, recognitions, and media buzz. With this list, I actually revisited Amazon and checked the latest ratings and reviews on all 106 releases from 2024, including the honorable mentions. So, each one received a score. That created an annual Top 10 List that featured a few surprises to me. For example, two books that didn’t make the Top 10 on any of my quarterly lists finished in the Top 10 on the year-end tally. Finally, I limited this annual list to one book per author.
The single dominating trend is that nine of the Top 10 books are titles in a series. Some series would be better to read starting with the first book, but with others it’s not necessary. What the trend tells me is these authors are delivering consistently entertaining reads to an appreciative audience. It doesn’t mean stand-alone titles were unpopular. Three of the next five books ranked outside the Top 10 were stand-alone titles. That’s just the way it panned out.
Again, I’ll repeat what I wrote in my Authors of the Year post: “My only motivation for compiling Cryptid Quarterly is to help fans of cryptid horror fiction like me find a neat new author or title that they may have missed in the wilds of the Amazon publishing jungle. There’s no controversy here. There’s no drama. I’m simply sharing my enjoyment of cryptid horror in my spare time. Feel free to comment below and recommend your favorite cryptid authors and books.”
Without further ado, here are the 2024 Cryptid Quarterly Books of the Year, according to Cryptid Quarterly. Clicking on the titles takes you to their Amazon pages where the books can be purchased. Happy reading!
#1. Devils Desk 2 by Mark Tufo
Publication date: January 2, 2024
Length: 327 pages
Amazon rating: 4.8 stars (out of 5)
2024 Cryptid Quarterly rank: Honorable Mention in Quarter I
Amazon description: Book 2 in the Devils Desk series. It’s impossible to mind your own business in an apocalypse. Thieves, pillagers, murderers — these lovely folks used to be your neighbors. At least your best friend gives you an out when he calls from Alaska, asking for help to avenge his wife’s murder. Cataclysmic earthquakes have decimated the American West, sending the country into chaos. As the Talbot family seeks refuge in the Rockies amid a rising catastrophe, a desperate SOS from BT uproots their plans for survival to send them on a world-altering quest for revenge, rescue, and the very life of the human race. Because something worse is stirring at the geographic epicenter of the disaster — Devils Desk, Alaska. The quakes have done more than just upend the country. Unaware of the nature of this new threat, the Talbots head into the breach to take on a rift to a dark dimension where a monstrous, boreal race awakens.
#2. Cry of the Wendigo by D.A. Roberts
Publication date: May 26, 2024
Length: 277 pages
Amazon rating: 4.7 stars
2024 Cryptid Quarterly rank: #1 in Quarter II
Amazon description: Book 3 in the Dark Frontiers series. In 1865, the American frontier was dark and foreboding. Settlers and pioneers faced danger at every turn, some vanishing without a trace. It took a special breed to tame this land and face the threats that lurked just outside the firelight. The U.S. Marshals dispatched a special team of deputies for this task. Declan Caine and his Nightmare Hunters were sent to bring down the deadliest creatures that stalked the land. Creatures that most people refuse to believe exist.
#3. Sasquatch 48: The Cabin by Jeffrey B Miley
Publication date: November 19, 2024
Length: 203 pages
Amazon rating: 4.7 stars
2024 Cryptid Quarterly rank: #3 in Quarter IV
Amazon description: Book 48 in the Sasquatch series. A simple dream is imagined by a war veteran who buys property in Montana. He builds a cabin by a large pond. He yearns to settle down, get married and raise a family, and fish on that big, beautiful pond. He never realizes his dream and disappears. In subsequent years, two more men with similar aspirations purchase the cabin and disappear. The locals believe the cabin is cursed. They attribute the disappearances to two possible scenarios, bear attacks or the Salish Wild Man. Eventually a man named Jason Banyon purchases the cabin. He is tasked with restoring the long empty cabin to its original glory. Along with that responsibility comes the curse. Will Jason survive, or will the cabin’s legacy of death and disappearance continue?
#4. Night of the Dogman: Vengeance by Luka T. Jacobs
Publication date: August 20, 2024
Length: 225 pages
Amazon rating: 4.6 stars
2024 Cryptid Quarterly rank: #3 in Quarter III
Amazon description: Book 3 in Night of the Dogman series. The town of Hickory is once again plunged into terror as the legendary Dogman resurfaces, driven by a primal need for vengeance after her offspring is taken. Adam, Jerry, and Rick — survivors of the previous encounters — find themselves facing a new nightmare, one more terrifying and deadly than before. As they join forces with Sheriff Walters and a new ally, Special Agent Nicole Beretti, the hunt for the Dogman becomes a desperate battle for survival. The creature is more relentless, more cunning, and bent on destroying everything in its path as it searches for its stolen young. As the body count rises and fear grips the town, our heroes must confront the terrifying reality of an unstoppable force bent on destruction. Will they manage to stop the Dogman before it’s too late, or will the beast’s thirst for vengeance and the drive to reclaim its offspring consume them all?
#5. Genoskwa: A New Beginning by Heath Stallcup
Publication date: May 24, 2024
Length: 318 pages
Amazon rating: 4.5 stars
2024 Cryptid Quarterly rank: #2 in Quarter II
Amazon description: Book 4 in the Genoskwa series. A war averted. Peace is made. The Genoskwa depart their stomping grounds for new lands that are untouched by humans. But Nature abhors a vacuum, and another clan moves into the territory, staking their claim on the mountain. When unsuspecting teens trespass on the Bureau’s crime scene cleanup in the hopes of seeing a living sasquatch in its natural environment, everything that could go wrong does. Concerned parents recruit Hector Ramirez to find their children and the creatures react violently, cutting off their escape. FBI SWAT teams are dispatched to rescue the civilians and old wounds are reopened. Nobody fights harder than when they are defending their home. Add the burning desire to retaliate and the battle becomes a war.
#6. Snakehead by Russ Tilton
Publication date: March 13, 2024
Length: 365 pages
Amazon rating: 4.5 stars
2024 Cryptid Quarterly rank: Honorable Mention in Quarter I
Amazon description: Book 7 in the Genetics Investigation Team series. Ecological disaster strikes the rolling hills of west central Kentucky after a corrupt landowner, blinded by greed and power, releases a monstrous menace upon an unsuspecting public. Can Jake Jessup and April Flowers stop the creatures before they cause a catastrophe of cataclysmic proportions? The Genetics Investigation Team dives in headlong against the deadliest mutant apex predator they’ve ever encountered while in the background, powerful forces, determined to revive the Mutant Apex Predator program, spin a treacherous web of deceit and betrayal.
#7. Cryptid Force Six: The Swamp by Lucas Pederson
Publication date: February 18, 2024
Length: 178 pages
Amazon rating: 4.6 stars
2024 Cryptid Quarterly rank: #4 in Quarter I
Amazon description: Book 4 in the Cryptid Force Six series. With the team in disarray and the loss of one of their own, Cujo leads them on the hunt for Dr. Reece to the swamps of Australia. An old enemy has risen from the ashes, and they soon find themselves encountering a legend almost as old as Australia itself … what some claim to be the ultimate monster.
#8. Skinwalker by K.T. Tomb
Publication date: September 13, 2024
Length: 143 pages
Amazon rating: 4.6 stars
2024 Cryptid Quarterly rank: #10 in Quarter III
Amazon description: Book 14 in the Creatures series. Jackson and Dustin have faced horrors together that would break lesser men, saving each other’s lives more times than they can count. Their bond, forged in blood and fear, is unshakable. When Jackson’s girlfriend, Doli, vanishes during a visit to Black Mesa, he knows he needs Dustin’s help. Rumor has it that a skinwalker — a creature of legend and nightmares — has taken her. Even though Dustin’s wife, Ash, is eight months pregnant, he leaves her in the care of Lux and his mother to stand by Jackson’s side once again. Ben, grateful to Jackson for saving Lux’s life back in Louisiana, insists on joining the search, no matter the danger. Something dark and evil has taken Doli, forcing Jackson to face impossible odds if he wants her back. Before he can save her, he has to find her. Jackson, Dustin, and Ben set out on a dangerous mission, following clues and hunting down whoever — or whatever — has Doli. With the help of the Navajo and Jackson’s own Chiricahua people, they’re determined to confront the evil that took her.
#9. Operation Yukatan by William Meikle
Publication date: March 13, 2024
Length: 127 pages
Amazon rating: 4.6 stars
2024 Cryptid Quarterly rank: #3 in Quarter I
Amazon description: Book 17 in the S-Squad series. It’s supposed to be a simple. babysitting gig, a way to ease in a new recruit to the squad. A new oil exploration site in the Yucatan is to receive an inspection from a team of Whitehall suits, with the squad along as backup. But the site has been built in exactly the wrong place. Something else, creatures from legend, lays claim to the land, and they want it back. When matters come to a head the squad does what it always does. They take a stand. They fight.
#10. Misadventures of a Cryptid Hunter by Michael Kelso
Publication date: January 2, 2024
Length: 349 pages
Amazon rating: 4.4 stars
2024 Cryptid Quarterly rank: #1 in Quarter I
Amazon description: I didn’t sign up for this. I never wanted to be a cryptid hunter. I didn’t even believe in cryptids. I always thought they were the stuff of bedtime stories to keep kids quiet and in bed, scared out of their wits, when mom and dad wanted some quality time together. I was perfectly happy in my boring job as a park ranger, but fate had other ideas. When I came face-to-face with a Bigfoot … everything changed. Some people are born to greatness, others have it thrust upon them. Then there are still others who trip, fall down a hill backwards, and land face first in a big stinky, steaming, pile of greatness. I was the latter. This is the story of that steaming pile that was my life as a cryptid hunter.
LIONEL RAY GREEN 