Gone Fishin'

 

This one came recommended by Jeffrey Kosh, since he knew I was a fan of creature features, and right off the bat, I have to say, based on this particular novel, it's a shame Shaun Jeffrey stopped writing (or so I've been told), and I will be checking out his other books.

Fangtooth hooks you from the very beginning. Howser, captain of the Silver Queen, spies an odd configuration on this ship's tracking equipment. All the technology is new to him and he pretty much leaves it to his more knowledgeable crew. Billy Trasker admits to having never seen anything like it. It could be a school of fish, but it might be something else. Well, whatever it is, it attacks the shipping; the ship sinks, taking the crew with it.

Then we're introduced to Bruce Holden, a recently widowed man, and his son Jack and their dog Shazam. I have to admit I almost stopped reading here. For some reason, whenever pets are introduced, they usually used as cannon fodder, one of the first victims of the big bad that lets the locals know something sinister is afoot. Thankfully, that doesn't happen. Hoping for a new start, Bruce and his son have moved to the small coastal village of Mulberry. Typical of scenarios like this, the son is an unwilling captive, being underage and having to cave to parental will, and he makes his displeasure know. From day 1, we know they're in for trouble, when they find the town crazy in their house. We will later learn that she becomes the cause of all the trouble for the Holdens. You seen, Mulberry is experiencing a drought of sorts. Besides the developments that were built all around the town, essentially cutting off the lifeblood to the residents, the waters appear to have been fished out, further jeopardizing the future of the town. We also learn later that the previous residents of the Holdens' new home, which has been vandalized with some strange, creepy graffiti, disappeared mysteriously. And through the Holdens, we're introduced to Erin and Jen, potential love interests for father and son, respectively. And we also find out the reason for the depleted fish population: giant, mutated, deep sea fish known as Fangtooths, and crazy Lillian believes that in order for to make the Fangtooths return to the depths and for the fishing to return to normal, a sacrifice needs to be made, and that sacrifice turns out to be the town's newest residents, since all the trouble started once they arrived. Best laid plans never go off without a hitch, and for folks who have enjoyed movies like Piranha and SyFy's Mega-Piranha, we know fish don't travel alone, and what was thought to be a one-off mutant turns out to be an entire school, and before you know it, the town of Mulberry is under siege.

This is one of those books where you curse life for interfering with your reading time because you just can't put it down (at least, that was my experience), but alas you must. Jeffrey does a great job leading the reader onward, ending each chapter in a min cliffhanger and compelling the reader to keep reading. He's fleshed out his characters, the main ones at least, so you find yourself rooting for them to come out of this thing unscathed. Others he provided just enough detail to make them interesting, and then there's the cannon fodder, folks we know nothing about except that they aren't going to make it out if this siege alive. And I confess, as much as I was rooting for the Holdens and those they cared about, I was more concerned with what happened to Shazam. I'm often criticized for my view of the treatment of animals in horror fiction: I don't care how many people you kill (kids, adult, old people), just leave the animals alone. And by animals, I mean the family pets. And folks will ask, But what about the fish? In this case, even though they are doing what nature has programmed them to do, they are still the Big Bad here, mutations that should not exist within the realms of nature, so they have to go. So, for folks like me, yes, Shazam does survive.

If you're a fan on nature strikes back horror, films and books like Night of the Lepus (adapted from The Year of the Angry Rabbit), Jaws, Piranha, Grizzly, and a whole host of movies from SyFy, then I can't recommend this book enough. Just turn off the TV, disconnect from Facebook and other social media, shut down your phones and tablets (unless you read on them), put up the Gone Fishin' sign, and and prepare for an action-packed tale of terror from the deep.