The Loch Ness Legacy

AFTERWORD

One of the things I enjoy about writing Tyler Locke thrillers is researching all the cool technology, history, and settings that I use in the book. As you were reading this, you probably came across a few things that surely seemed made up, but it’s likely they’re actually real or at least based on reality.

I will admit that the DeadEye targeting system and Mayfly drone are my creations, but quadcopters are absolutely real. In fact, you can buy one for yourself for a very reasonable price and control it using your smartphone. It even does flips, but I don’t know of any equipped with a Taser.

Harris Ranch (dubbed Cowschwitz) is a real cattle stockyard in California. I’ve experienced the smell myself. Pity the poor employees of Pleasant Valley State Prison, which is located just to the south.

If you’re one of the lucky buyers of an actual Icon A5 sport plane, I highly recommend checking the option box for the Ballistic Recovery Systems Complete Plane Parachute. Their system has already saved over 225 lives.

Pike Place Market is one of my favorite destinations in Seattle. Be sure to stop by and watch the fishmongers throw gigantic salmon to each other.

The shadow sculptures of Tim Noble and Sue Webster are really quite remarkable. I’d get one for my own house if I had anywhere to put it.

The remodeled Salle Gustave Eiffel should now be open for parties so make your reservation right away.

If you haven’t been to Versailles, it’s hard to convey the sheer ostentation of the palace and gardens. I had the good fortune to visit it for the purposes of researching this novel, and serendipity from my tour appears in the closure of the Bains d’Apollon, which was shut down for renovation while I was there, and in the surprise appearance of a cat while I was wandering through the gardens.

Although Altwaffe is a fabrication, the rare disease its effects are based on is depressingly real. The poor children afflicted with progeria usually don’t live far into their teens, and the genetic disease has no known cure.

Fuel-cell cars are beginning to make an appearance on the roads, but I don’t know of any go-karts featuring that powerplant.

John Edmonstone, a freed Guyana slave who lived in Edinburgh, was a friend of Charles Darwin during his time in medical college at the University of Edinburgh and may indeed have trained him in taxidermy.

While Darwin did visit Glen Roy in the Scottish Highlands, there’s no record of him ever visiting Loch Ness. I prefer to think he kept that trip a secret.

The interiors of Holyroodhouse Palace and Edinburgh Castle are as I’ve described them, including the castle’s Great Hall lined with hundreds of old weapons.

Urquhart Castle is also described faithfully, down to the glass door in the gatehouse. The Grant Tower really is the bastion’s name, and I was lucky to view the loch from its top floor platform (on the coldest May day I’ve ever experienced).

I was surprised to learn that hunting of minke whales continues to this day in Norway, and the whalers use explosive-tipped harpoons to kill their prey.

The GhostManta sub, designed by Caan Yaylali, hasn’t put to sea, but you can find renderings of it on the Internet. I would love to fly under the ocean in such a submarine if anyone ever constructs one.

Many theories have been put forth about the Loch Ness monster, first and foremost that it’s nothing more than a hoax or wishful thinking. However, coelacanths, axolotls, sturgeons, and Chinese giant salamanders are all real creatures that have characteristics in common with Nessie’s alleged behavior.

While I was at Loch Ness, I took a boat tour of the loch guided by George Edwards, captain of the Nessie Hunter IV. Although we didn’t spot Nessie that day, several months later Mr. Edwards snapped a photo of a mysterious shape in the water, and it made worldwide headlines. Few people consider the photograph to be definitive proof of the creature’s existence, but it certainly adds more intrigue to the legend. Now that more people than ever are armed with cell-phone cameras, maybe one day we’ll get irrefutable evidence that something lives in the depths of Loch Ness.