A well-written, thoroughly researched, and entertaining piece about the history of the search for the Loch Ness Monster. It succeeds, unhappily, in convincing me that the thing does not exist (to be fair, I never really believed that it did but hope springs eternal). I find, though, after reading this, that the absence of the monster doesn't make the story less interesting - instead of the story of the search for a cryptid, it's become the story of a search for what we want to believe, the wonder and whimsy of a natural world that we still don't fully understand, and the lengths that people will go to to encourage or maintain that desire to believe. This is fascinating stuff in itself, and something that I can understand on a personal level: being persuaded, as I am now, that the monster does not exist, I still want to visit Loch Ness in the hope that something weird and serpentine will turn up. If that isn't the persuasiveness and attraction of legend I don't know what is.