Book Review: Fathomless by Greig Beck

Baranof Island, Gulf of Alaska, 1952. Jim Granger is searching for a place of legend. Known as ‘Bad Water’ by the island’s elders, it’s reputed to be home to many dangerous creatures. Through a seam in a cliff face, Jim finds what he seeks. He also finds, too late, that the water demon he was warned about is horrifyingly real.

Today, Cate Granger is following in her grandfather’s footsteps. Along with a team of scientists and crew, she accidentally releases a creature from Earth’s primordial past into today’s oceans. The giant Megalodon shark follows its instinct and a genetic memory of a home that once existed millions of years ago along the Californian coast. Nothing is safe on or below the water as the monster stakes its claim on the world’s oceans.

Now Cate and her team must do battle with a creature that has no rival, knows no fear, and regards humans as nothing more than prey. In FATHOMLESS, the greatest predator the world has ever known is coming home. 

My Review: 
Jim is exploring a Nantouk legend that tells of young men going into the Bad Water to battle a monster and prove themselves to be men and bring home a trophy. He believes he has found the route they took and finds himself in a series of caves but an accident with his lantern leads to him finding out exactly what is in the Bad Water. He is never heard from again. Now years later his granddaughter Cate is following in his footsteps and is about to find the caves and a hole leading down to an underground lake. Gathering a team to help her, she begins an underwater expedition to explore this lost world, unaware that a deadly megalodon is lurking in the dark depths where their sub is.

The team take their advanced mini sub into the lake and discover a whole new environment. I really liked the description of what they were seeing and experiencing, especially as they encountered each creature that lived there. I found this part of the book to be full of tension as the reader knows that the megalodon is in there and I was waiting for it to appear and cause trouble. I love these creature feature books where you know it is lurking there and waiting to strike from the dark! However, the sub journey is just the start of a survival expedition for the team and it goes in a new and exciting direction after they meet the megalodon. I don't want to go into all the plot twists but there is plenty action in the lake and in the ocean to enjoy!

Cate is a really good character, obsessed with finding out what happened to Jim and following in his footsteps. When she discovers the lagoon inside the mountain area, she is desperate to get funding and turns to Russian billionare Valery, who has an interest in extinct creatures. Along with her friends Greg and Abigail, the expedition begins. Valery was my favourite character. It was great to see a Russian character who was actually a good man, interested in the history of extinct species and happy to fund the trip if he can join it. I liked his warmth and his humour. The interactions between the members of the team are fun to read about and I also liked the way the book started with Jim's adventure. It was the perfect way to set up the story.  

Valery, as a rich and successful man, has made some powerful enemies who want to take him down. Yusoff lost his position and everything he cared about when Valery told the President about his dodgy deals, and now the angry man is trying to arrange to have Valery snatched as part of his revenge plot. Sadly for Cate's team, Yusoff is happy to use the expedition to trap Valery at any cost. I was concerned that this sub plot might take away from the story but I actually really enjoyed it. Valery's brilliant security expert Sonya discovers the plot and would do anything to save her boss and foil the plot. I loved the adventures of Sonya as she tries to stop Yusoff and find a way to save the team who are about to land in a world of hurt. 

I just loved this book. It has the exciting action packed scenes that I enjoy, the tension of the underwater exploration, lots of fun shark scenes, interesting sub plots and great characters. I liked seeing good Russian characters like Sonja and Valery rather than them all being enemies of the Americans. I'm a huge fan of shark books especially megalodons so I had a lot of fun with this book! The author is a great storyteller and this was the first book by Greig Beck that I read. It certainly won't be the last. I already have the sequel Abyss, and his dinosaur series Primordia which I'm starting to read as we speak. This is a creature feature adventure author that I'm going to really enjoy, rather like Matthew Reilly!

Read September 2018
5 stars.