Book Review; The Van Meter Visitor

The Van Meter Visitor

A true & mysterious encounter with the unknown.

Authors:                                Chad Lewis, 
                                               Noah Voss, 
                                               Kevin Lee Nelson. 

Cover Design:                       Kevin Lee Nelson               

Publisher:                             Back Roads Lore             

Type:                                     TPB

Pages:                                   238

Genre:                                  Non fiction

Published:                            2013

ISBN:                                    978-0982431467

Source:                                 Independently purchased 

 The year was 1903, the place was a Iowa town of 1000 souls, the creatures that clawed there way up the coal mine and into the night to terrify the townsfolk are a mystery. 

This book seeks to explore the event and answer the question that had puzzled historians and zoologists for a hundred years. 

What was the Van Meter Visitor?

The book itself has a nice olden timely cover with a great antiquated looking photo. There are a good number of diagrams, historical photos and news clippings thorough the book, helping to add to the feeling that you are uncovering the secrets of the past.

I noticed about six editing errors while reading the book, though i must stress that they were little things (like sentence missing the word "as"), and none prevented my understanding of the text.

The forward is written by Brad Steiger (an author of works on the paranormal, spirituality, and UFOs), the book has a good contents page, useful appendix, and well spaced bibliography, the photo of the news clipping and reproducing the story in full text form was much appreciated.

This book is a non fiction study of what occurred in Van Meter all those years ago. It is exhaustive and covers many possible explanations for the events in question. The authors seem to know just when they are about to overload the reader with too much information and gently steer us back to the subject, before we are weighed down with the intricacy of any given theory.

I am continually amazed by how today's science is catching up with the knowledge of pagan belief systems, i find this subject fascinating and it was touched on in this work while examining possible explanations for the mystery. Explanations range from the simple; a previously unknown radioactive mutant subterranean species to the truly preposterous, such as an a burglar. While i don't agree with the authors favorite explanation as to what the visitors were, i definitely enjoyed learning about the visitors and building my own opinions based on the evidence uncovered by the authors and appreciate there unbiased reporting.

I found this book to be a fascinating read and i am sure anyone interested in cryptozoology, paranormal activity, meta physics, parapsychology, thought forms, UFOs, aliens, or history will like this equally enjoyable.

Chad Lewis has written many books on the supernatural including The Road guide to mysterious creatures, and The Road guide to haunted locations series's.

Noah Voss has published Mysterious Madison and UFO Wisconsin.

Kevin Lee Nelson has contributed to many books on folklore and been an expert on many television program.

* A version of this review originally appeared in Monkeys Book Reviews.