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Anyone expecting another light, gee-whiz, 'look what's out there' romp of the McEwan/Bord variety will find this book something of a shock, for it is a decidely serious book, by a decidedly serious (crypto)zoologist, and although some of the author's arguments are rather technical for the lay reader, they are worth persevering with in order to understand the core of his thesis.
Eschewing paranormalist speculation, Shuker argues in favour of what might be called 'moderate anomalies' - yes, there are Surrey Pumas, but they are escapees; there are indeed poorly described felids in Africa, South America and, perhaps, North America; Australian mystery cats will be either marsupials or yet more escapees. Sceptics might think that Shuker's thesis depends an awful lot of careless people allowing big cats to escape all over the place, and that Shuker's work is an example of Mauger's thesis of 'naturalisation' and 'scientification' of supernatural and mythic belief systems. The appeal of the mystery cat myth lies in its evocation of the Platonic essence of cat, wild, mysterious and free, defying the modern world of the factory farm and the property developer, even (especially?) in Surrey.
- Peter Rogerson, from Magonia 34, 1989.
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