Thresher - Michael Cole - Mel's Bookshelf

Thresher: A Deep Sea Thriller – Michael Cole (2018)

(4 / 5)

Even though it technically isn’t shark week, it is very much feeling like shark week to me! Firstly, I see the new movie The MEG! Secondly, I read this book Thresher. And then to top off my week it’s a shark feeding frenzy in Australian politics right now! So it was a funny and fitting coincidence that I write this review this week!

Strange things are going on in the waters outside of Florida. People are missing, boats are capsized, and large sea creatures are turning up dead in the water. Seasoned cop Leonard Riker and rookie Metzler are sent to patrol the shore and soon discover that there is something terrifying in the water!

I was pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed this book. It was really well written and had an entertaining and layered story line with really likeable characters. I mean sure, its a book about a giant killer shark, so it is meant to be over the top with dramatic and often corny action scenes. But they were loads of fun! It was like reading a hollywood blockbuster.

Some of the scenes were from the sharks perspective which really worked for me. I loved the explanations of the way the shark was behaving and the whole thing was a lot of fun.

The classic, worn-out-cop working with the excited-rookie and all of their angry interactions and escapades were really enjoyable and I liked that they were actually quite complex characters. I also loved the bad guys (and girls)!

Another thing that I enjoyed about Thresher was that it wasn’t a classic “giant natural creature of the deep” plot. It is much more complex than that and I thought it was quite clever. Plus it wasn’t a great white or a megalodon! I loved that!

I only had a few issues with the book, and that was that at times it dragged on a bit, especially the shark action scenes, and also my copy was mostly in italics and that was really confusing and difficult to adjust to. Also, I like a bit of romance in my books, and there was NOTHING! Not even a hint of one from the two main characters, which I understood because of where the characters were in their lives, but still. Give me SOMETHING!!!

However, overall I found it to be a really enjoyable read!