Eye of the Cyclops - Mystery Zoo, #1

Linda Barker, a 16-year-old Chinese-American girl, her 18-year-old Irish-American cousin Joey O'Connell, and their 17-year-old Afro-American friend Tyler Forbes, live on Spinnaker Island off the coast of Maine with their parents and/or guardians Adam and Luan Barker. Adam is the world's most famous cryptozoologist and roams the globe investigating reports of unusual animals, many of which are kept in the island's fantastic zoo. His wife Luan is the zookeeper and administrator and frequently goes on expeditions of her own. On the Greek island of Nereus, a young woman named Theresa is frightened by a hulking figure pursuing her through the woods in the darkness. When an old friend brings Adam reports of a mythological Cyclops supposedly bedeviling Nereus, he has several reasons for sending the trio of teens to investigate in his stead. The intrepid trio have seen some strange creatures while on expeditions with Linda's parents, but they find it difficult to believe in the existence of a Cyclops. But everywhere they turn they see signs that some large creature is causing havoc -- overturned sheds, unnatural rockslides, earth tremors -- and what about those gigantic footprints in a field on Theresa's property? When Theresa is kidnapped, the teens search for her in hidden caverns and flooded tunnels under the surface of Nereus. Escaping death or injury several times, they finally uncover the truth about the Cyclops, as well as a malevolent criminal lurking in the shadows. EYE OF THE CYCLOPS is an exciting and suspenseful multicultural novel for young people eight and up.