Book Review: Devil Sharks by Chris Jameson

When Alex Simmons is invited to a college reunion in the Hawaiian Islands aboard the private yacht of his old pal Harry Curtis, he is not sure what to expect. The two men had a falling-out years ago over the suicide of one of their friends. Could this be Harry's way of making amends? Or is something more sinister in store?

The crew sets sail and arrives at Orchid Atoll, the site of a deserted former Coast Guard station. But they are far from alone. Out here, three hundred miles from civilization, Alex and his friends are about to encounter two very different brands of evil--one human, the other with fins--unlike anything they could have possibly imagined. They have entered a place where there's no law, no mercy... and no way out.

My Review: 
At college, Alex and his friends were as close as any friends could be until Derek killed himself. It was Harry's reaction, blaming Derek for his selfish actions and having no sympathy that led to the breakup of the group with Alex in particularly reacting badly to Harry's words. Now Harry wants to make amends to his former friends by inviting them and their partners to a reunion cruise on his boat in Hawaii. Alex is reluctant but feels he has to go to bring closure to everything that happened but doesn't know that an ongoing feud with Harry is going to be the least of his problems.

The cruise begins with tension between the friends because of the past and Alex is determined not to forgive Harry, which makes me wonder why he went on the cruise. I guess a free holiday was enough to tempt him. He does agree that Harry can take the ship on a detour to an atoll where Harry's dead father served at a Coast Guard station. It is when they explore the atoll buildings that they come across a delirious dying man who attacks and badly injures Gabe, the one man who can captain the ship. With the possibility of being stranded with nobody able to pilot the boat or use the radio, things are difficult. When the deadly sharks appear, some are trapped on the atoll unable to get back to the boat, while others are stuck on the boat seeking a way to call for help and rescue their friends. It is then that they are paid a visit from the people that Isko barely escaped from.

I previously loved Shark Island by the author, which is also a stand-alone adventure and this book was a solid enough read but not as good. I do give credit for the stunning covers on both books and the upcoming Shark Beach. They are visually stunning! My issue was not really with the story, which I liked with the sharks and the bad guys to deal with. For me it was not greatly liking the MC and his ongoing vendetta with Harry.

I kind of felt that Alex was a really petty kind of guy. Yes what Harry said at the time was horrible but no doubt he was acting out of shock and grief for Derek's death and feeling angry in his own mind that Derek in some way didn't care enough for his friends to reach out to them for help, instead taking 'the easy way out'. I think Harry was hurt by this and if Alex and his friends had just talked it through, they could have got past it all without falling out about it. After all, everyone reacts to grief in different ways. Now that Harry is trying to make it up to Alex, Alex is still holding that grudge and taking every chance to have a go at Harry. I didn't much like Alex to be honest. It boils over between them again later when Harry doesn't want the violent man brought aboard the ship and Alex takes the chance to fight with him about that, leading to tragedy.

Isko and his friends crossed the wrong man and are all thrown into the water with the sharks. He is badly hurt and feverish, but manages to crawl onto the atoll and take shelter. When Harry's group find him, he lashes out thinking they are sent to finish him off, leading to Gabe's injury and a world of trouble for everyone on the boat. His story was interesting and collides nicely with the cruise story. Dev's shark fear means he refuses to leave the atoll when the sharks first appear and his partner Alliyah reluctantly has to stay with them, even though their relationship is on the verge of collapse. With a storm coming, the atoll is not the place that she wants to be and the others on the boat are frustrated at the thought of rescuing or leaving them, if they can get the boat operational. 

There were lots of relationship sub plots in the book. Dev and Alliyah's relationship was falling apart over the behaviour of both of them and I found them really annoying. Dev's attitude on the atoll was frustrating and I wanted to hit him. Luisa was self obsessed and I was frequently annoyed by the way she demanded all the attention and wanted every man to lust after her. She got worse as the book went on. The fued was quite annoying and the more interesting characters were pretty neglected in favour of idiots. I found the shark plot a lot more interesting that who was sleeping with who and who had been with who in the past. I felt that this angst in the group did take away from the shark drama in the book. It was a decent read but not as good as the first one but I still look forward to his third shark book.

Read September 2018.
3 stars.