Raptor is one of a series of thrillers that Zindel has recently written. The others, so far, are Loch (please see separate entry), Reef of Death (please see separate entry), and The Doom Stone (please see separate entry). Like Raptor, these novels feature frightful monsters. Like Raptor's plot, The Doom Stone and Loch plots turn on the fate of their monsters; in Reef of Death, the monster fills a secondary role as one among several sources of chills. Like Raptor, Loch features dinosaurs, the aquatic plesiosaurs. In Loch, three youngsters take on a rapacious research expedition bent on capturing the plesiosaurs dead or alive—more likely dead. In Reef of Death, two young adults and an elderly man take on an illegal mining operation that is disguised as a research ship. The bloody scenes in Reef of Death and Loch equal those in Raptor, providing...