By JACK COUFFER (Berkley Medallion; 1977)

One of the more curious products of the horror boom, NIGHTS WITH SASQUATCH is a paperback original from 1977 that could be a porno take-off on KING KONG, yet is far from pornographic in its descriptions.  It appears to have been patterned after the many “true” accounts of Bigfoot/Loch Ness Monster/UFO encounters that proliferated in the seventies—as is evident in the non-existent scientific texts referenced in the opening pages (such as an article entitled “Pleistocene Man-Ape Link Survives In Canadian Wilderness,” which apparently provides a “complete technical report” of the events described in this book) and the credited authors “John Cotter” and “Judith Frankle,” who are the book’s central characters—but the real author Jack Couffer doesn’t take the faux-nonfiction masquerade very far.  In fact, this book is quirky enough in its mixture of “reality” and utter silliness I think it possible that Couffer might actually have cared about what he was writing—but I stress might.

Achingly simple in both conception and execution, it involves John, a zoology professor, and Judy, one of his more fetching students, on a backpacking trip in the Pacific Northwest.  Their relationship quickly turns sexual, which attracts the attention of an especially horny Sasquatch (of which John’s initial impression is “Jesus, he’s hung like a stud dinosaur!”).  The critter makes off with Judy, intending, it seems, to use her as its sex slave, but Judy manages to keep the Sasquatch under control, initially at least, by administering hand jobs.  John tracks the two through the wilderness and, after an elaborate trap involving rope and bent trees fails, contacts the authorities.  As for Judy, she realizes she’ll have to give in to the creature’s lusts (or at least pretend to) if she’s to survive.

Frankly, the above summary sounds a lot more exciting than the book actually reads.  Likewise the front page and back cover blurbs, which promise a “shock-a-page novel” about a woman “transformed into a shameless savage” and a man “driven mad by revenge.”  Those things simply aren’t true of the actual text, which is never as shocking or outrageous as you might expect.  The book is reasonably well written, with suitably atmospheric descriptions of the forest scenery and scientific jargon that sounds authentic (with the word Sasquatch utilized throughout, as opposed to the more common term Bigfoot).  The author clearly did his homework, and far more extensively than was called for by the ridiculous subject matter.  But it could have been so much more.