Book Review: The Tank by Rick Chesler

Inmate Kane Brooks escapes from prison while participating in a program to train as a commercial deep sea diver. When he assumes a new identity in Florida as an alligator wrangler removing nuisance animals from homes and businesses, it looks like he’s found a way to settle down and lay low. But that all changes when a casual backyard gladiator racket turns into an underground empire staging man-versus beast spectacles in a cage-fighting style ring.

After Fish & Wildlife officer Heather Winters is tipped off about the illegal activity and starts to investigate, she goes undercover, posing as a spectator at the matches in order to infiltrate the underground culture. But when Winters gets close to obtaining sufficient evidence to make an arrest, she learns the man staging the contests is not at all who he says he is. When Brooks catches on to her true role, Winters finds herself in the unenviable position of having to face off as a contestant in the ultimate fight card—woman vs. great white shark in… THE TANK. 

My Review: 
Kane was training to be a deep sea diver while serving a prison sentence but decided to escape during a job and set himself up as an alligator wrangler. Using a false name he is happy with his new life but everything changes when he is left with an alligator that he has to keep overnight in his pool. His drunken friends dare each other to spend time in with it for money and it is the start of a whole new business venture. Kane starts to arrange human v beast fight nights and it becomes a popular illegal local event. However, Kane is aware that the more events he does, the bigger the fights need to be and that may attract the attention of the local authorities. 

I went into this book thinking it was going to be a dumb animal version of those cheap Best of the Best type films and I wasn't really dying to read it despite this being a favourite author. The idea of a human in a tank with an animal in a fight seemed a bit dumb at first but it was actually done in a clever and entertaining way. I was really happy to discover that it was actually a really great book and that the plot really did work on every level. I'm not a fan of having an MC that is a convict but I did find Kane to be really interesting. I was intrigued about the new life that he set up for himself and how he developed a stupid drunken idea into a successful if illegal money earner. I wouldn't say I was rooting for Kane but I did find him and his ideas fascinating to read about. I also liked that Kane was determined to use the animal for one night only, not allow anyone to have a weapon to hurt it and then releasing it straight back into the wild. He does not want any animal hurt even to save humans from injury in the fight.

The friends start by asking a few trusted people to come round for an alligator party to test out the idea and it is a success. The idea develops into getting people to pay to watch and offering some of that money as a prize to those brave enough to go into the tank with it. The event starts with an alligator in a portable Octagon tank that can be set up in a secret location and told to people at the last minute. Kane soon realises that he will need to up the game and he starts introducing new animals into the fight like Florida panthers and sharks. As the stakes are raised, Kane has to take bigger risks to get the rewards.

The other story running through the book is Heather's adventures. Heather is working for Fish and Wildlife, and investigates when a recently released croc's tag is found where it was released. At this point Heather has no idea that Kane took it for his tank but she almost catches him releasing it after the fight. She soon starts to hear rumours about the fight nights and is put undercover on the case. It takes time to find her way into the fights and she attracts a bit of attention of the wrong kind when she starts asking too many questions. Is her cover going to be blown or can she take Kane and his friends down?

I loved the actual fights. They were pretty tense as you waited to see if the person is going to be able to last in the fight without injury or if they are going to get hurt. I loved how crazy the actual fights were and wondered about the insanity of the idiots that were getting into water tanks with wild animals! It does seem that humans can be very stupid when money is waved in front of them, especially after a few drinks! I also enjoyed the scenes where Kane was going out trying to catch his latest animals to use in the fights especially his battle with the Florida panther. That was a lot of fun to read about. I found myself questioning some of the things that Heather was doing during her undercover work which risked her whole mission. The irony is that Heather and Kane both cared about the welfare of the animals despite being on opposite sides of the law.

I enjoy Rick Chesler's books because he is a great storyteller and his creature features are always fun to read. This was different from what I was expecting in a good way and I feel that few authors could have carried off this kind of plot so well. His characters are always interesting and he likes to have bad guys as MCs some of the time, as he did in this book and in Sawfish. It was nice to get in the heads of characters like this and see their motivations and see them as more than just the bad guy. I like the way the author mixed action and tension with a totally different plot.  

A really enjoyable creature feature!

Read September 2018.
4 stars.