Pacific Northwest zoologist turned author- Roland Smith has done it again. This is the third book in his cryptid series. Chupacabra is fast paced. It keeps you wanting more even if you have not read the first two books in the series.  The introductory pages includes: a definition of ‘cryptozoology’, a running list of characters and their ties in the story,  background on chupacabra creatures, an introduction to the series, and a prologue, prior to the first chapter bringing the reader up to date on the events of the previous book – Tentacles.

Teenage Grace is living with her grandfather, Noah Blackwood, in his mansion connected to the Seattle Ark, a wildlife zoo in Seattle, WA. Grace, who  has just met her grandfather, is anxious to find out about a family she has never known. Can Noah Blackwood be as awful as her cousin Marty thinks he is? She has decided to find out firsthand. Marty and his friends Dylan and Luther, are bound and determined to get Grace away from Noah and the pair of dinosaur hatchlings Noah’s men stole from Marty’s Uncle Wolfe in the previous book. When they enter Seattle Ark they are immediately watched  on security cameras. Soon Noah’s top right-hand man, Butch is drugging Luther and taking him into the Ark’s labyrinth of secure underground laboratories. Marty and Dylan hide out in the Ark until after it closes to the public before their search for Grace, Luther, and the dinosaurs begin. Little be little Grace has masterfully played her grandfather’s employees to uncover information revealing her grandfather’s true character. The world sees Noah Blackwood for his efforts to save the world’s rarest animals, when in reality, Noah is collecting these animals for profit and his own private collection. Luther escapes from Butch by going into the ventilation system. Noah has his genetically engineered chupacabra placed into the ventilation system to hunt Luther down and get rid of him permanently. The chase is on. Technologically savvy teenagers verses the technologically savvy secret world of a greedy self-centered billionaire. Who will survive?