White Shark by Peter Benchley

 

(pb; 1994; a.k.a. Peter Benchley’s Creature)

From the back cover

“At a small marina 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 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.”

 

Review

White Shark is a slick, fun, and fast-moving ocean-based thriller, with a gleefully B-movie elements (a mad Nazi doctor, a seemingly unstoppable and physically imposing monster, brief-but-effective gore), well-defined good guys and bad guys, and a tidy wrap-up that you’ll likely see coming but (maybe) appreciate anyway. Entertaining read by a great writer, this, worth picking up.

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The resulting two-episode TV miniseries, titled Creature, originally aired on ABC on May 17, 1998. Stuart Gillard directed it from a teleplay by Rockne S. O’Bannon.

Craig T. Nelson played Dr. Simon Chase. Kim Catrall played Dr. Amanda Mayson. Cress Williams played Tall Man.

Colm Feore played Adm. Aaron Richland. Michael Riley Burke played Adam Puckett. Giancarlo Esposito played Lt. Thomas Peniston/Werewolf. Peter Benchley cameoed as "Exec's Buddy".

Jaws by Peter Benchley

 

(pb; 1974)

Review

This is one of my all-time favorite pulp-thriller novels, a hard-to-set-down, entertaining mix of pulpy corruption, class warfare, a killer monster, character development and cinematic-vivid (without becoming verbose) writing. Obviously, given its setting, this is a great beach read, one worth owning (I’ve re-read it three times in four decades, and been wowed anew every time).

Followed by Hank Searls’s notably-different-from-the-film Jaws 2.

Note: The novel is considerably different than its streamlined 1975 film version, by having Martin Brody as a native of Amity, Long Island (in the film he’s “not an islander. . . [he's] from New York”). The book, which may upset those sensitive to bad things happening to cute land animals, also has equal-to-shark-time focus on corrupt mayor/real estate agent Larrry Vaughan (it’s Vaughn in the movie) and his likely criminal “silent partners.” A subplot about a key character’s infidelity and Amity’s history is also highlighted, as well as how the Brodys have three sons (not two, like the film version) with different fates for one of the main characters.

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The resulting film was released stateside on June 20, 1975. Steven Spielberg directed the film from Carl Gottlieb’s screenplay (Gottlieb also played Harry Meadows in the film).

Roy Scheider played Brody. Robert Shaw played Quint. Richard Dreyfuss played Matt Hooper.

Lorraine Gary played Ellen Brody. Chris Rebello played Michael Brody. Jay Mello played Sean Brody.

Murray Hamilton played Larry Vaughn. Peter Benchley played an “Interviewer.”

The Island by Peter Benchley

(hb; 1979) 

 From the inside flap

"How could hundreds of boats, carrying more than two thousand people, simply disappear? Why does no one know, or care to know? Blair Maynard, an editor at a weekly news magazine, becomes obsessed with finding out what's going on. . . "With his twelve-year-old son, Maynard pursues the story to remote archipelago southeast of the Bahamas. There, on the deceptively inviting waters of the tropics, Maynard and his son sail into as sinister a drama as has ever been played out on the sea. For the island harbors a violent and shocking secret -- and by discovering it, Maynard and his son are plunged into a nightmare struggle to survive." 

Review

 Gripping, mysterious, informative, blast-through-it suspense novel. More intense than The Deep, this too, reads like an island camp fireside-scary but thrilling caveat tale about the enchanting, treacherous ocean - as well as the sometimes treacherous and malleable nature of people. Much of what makes The Island resound with me is Maynard's intent, in the latter part of the book: he's trying to save his son, who seems to have gone violently native with these brutish, Christian-based(!) savages who have kidnapped them. (In The Deep, it was also a life-or-death situation for its protagonists, but the child in peril element of The Island raises the bizarre stakes.) Check this out. 

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The film version was released stateside on June 13, 1980. 

Michael Ritchie directed the film, from book author Peter Benchley's screenplay. 

 Michael Caine played Blair Maynard. Jeffrey Frank played Justin Maynard. David Warner played John David Nau. Frank Middlemass played Windsor. Colin Jeavons played Hizzoner. Angela Punch MacGregor played Beth.

The Deep by Peter Benchley

(pb; 1976)

From the back cover

"On a perfect day in Bermuda a honeymooning couple dives into the offshore reefs. They are looking for the wreck of a sunken ship. What they find is surprising. It lures them into a mysterious and increasingly dangerous encounter, a relentless struggle for survival."


Review

Fun, informative, mysterious, blast-through-it-at-the-beach suspense novel. Some of the scenes are brutal, but if you read Jaws and didn't flinch, you're probably okay reading The Deep.

This is a consummate guilty pleasure. Check it out.

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The film version was released stateside on June 17, 1977.

Nick Nolte played David Sanders. Jacqueline Bisset played Gail Burke. Robert Shaw played Romer Treece. Eli Wallach played Adam Coffin. Lou Gossett Jr., billed as Lou Gossett, played Henri Cloche. Robert Tessier played Kevin.

Peter Yates directed the film, from a script by book author Peter Benchley and Tracy Keenan Wynn.