Description:

At a small marine institute off the coast of Connecticut, only marine biologist Simon Chase realizes that a sixteen-foot pregnant Great White is feeding in the area. But even Simon doesn't know that a far deadlier creature is about to come out of the deep and threaten everything he cares for. A creature whose malevolence is unthinkable. Whose need to feed is insatiable. And whose relentless hunt for prey is unstoppable.

Nearly twenty-five years after his huge bestseller Jaws, the master of the deep has done it again, letting loose a chilling new predator that only he could create. Drawing on his singular knowledge of the sea, science, and history, Peter Benchley masterfully spins a suspense-filled novel that hits you on a primal level, makes your heart pound, and leaves your blood running cold.

From Publishers Weekly

We never thought it was really safe to go back in the water, and Benchley's new eco-thriller exploits the fear he engendered in Jaws . Here the menace is a creature spawned by a demented Nazi scientist, which has hatched 50 years later in a quiet Atlantic fishing community. Simon Chase has dropped his society wife and infant son, Max, to finish school and start the Osprey Island Marine Institute near Long Island's North Shore. Shark studies are his speciality. Chase fears the responsibilities of fatherhood, but when Max, now 12, visits, the two get on famously and soon Max has the run of the institute. Then, a crew tracking a pregnant Great White named Jaws spot a porpoise with a claw gash in its tail and see massive kills of sea life; when they then observe the same claw marks on Jaws herself, Chase knows "there's something out there." Enter Dr. Amanda Macy, who studies whales using sea lions with strapped-on video cameras. Macy leases the institute, both solving Chase's money woes and making first contact with the unknown menace. Soon Macy's camera gets a shot of a steel-clawed hand grappling with a sea lion. After additional bloody encounters at sea, the beast comes ashore, eventually to threaten Amanda and Max. Benchley's writing is fast-paced, and he alternates the tension with poignant family scenes and ample amounts of marine ecology. Literary Guild main selection; major ad/promo; author tour.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

YA-YAs whose tastes run to monsters and man eaters will enjoy this tale of a Nazi plot gone awry. Near the end of World War II, a German scientist and his bizarre creation are smuggled out of Europe on a submarine. An accident destroys all but the creature in its protective box; the story then fast-forwards to contemporary New England. Simon Chase, marine biologist, is attempting to keep his tiny marine institute solvent, raise his young son alone, and continue his research. He is among the first to notice the effects of an unidentifiable predator in the local waters that consumes humans, sea birds, dolphins, and sharks, leaving evidence of metal teeth and razor-like slashes on its victims. Into this chilling scene comes Dr. Amanda Macy and her trained sea lions to do research on whales. With her financial and technical support, Chase can continue his own work, but the growing threat from the monster forces them to direct their attention toward it. After a series of grisly events, they meet a Jewish survivor of Nazi medical experiments; from him they learn that they are tracking Heinrich Guenther, a half-human, amphibious warrior programmed to be a relentless killing machine. Benchley provides a clever, tense, and explosive ending to this tale of science run amok. Evil is satisfyingly vanquished, and the hero gets his institute and an engaging new partner to boot. An action-filled novel that's perfect for poolside reading.
Carolyn E. Gecan, Thomas Jefferson Sci-Tech, Fairfax County,
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.