Ray's Reviews: It Waits Below by Eric Red

"It Waits Below" by motion picture screenwriter and director Eric Red

(Samhain, $16) is an action-packed, underwater thriller that packs a

powerful punch, liable to keep you up all night, feverishly turning

pages.

        The oversized paperback opens with a brief prologue that sets

up the rest of the quirky novel's premise. An asteroid carrying an

alien life form

hurtles through the atmosphere in 1853, crushing the Spanish warship

Corona and sending all of its crew to a deep watery grave.

        Then the novel jumps ahead 160 years, where a major underwater

salvage company has discovered the wreckage almost three miles down.

        They go to the site and launch "The Neptune", a specially

designed three man DSV (Deep Submersive Vehicle) which can reach those

distant depths safely. Their goal is to find and bring to the surface

the estimated $30 million gold bullion treasure that the Corona was

carrying.

        The three people in the bathyscaphe have varying degrees of

experience, including Captain Sebastian Enright, one of the owners of

the salvage company. Pilot Oleg Polidori is a former Russian sailor

and Jane Clark is the attractive apprentice pilot.

        The crew's problems begin when they reach their goal, also

discovering a deadly extraterrestrial life form that's been waiting

impatiently.

        Their challenges multiply as they are trapped deep below the

surface and their support ship is attacked by nasty, gun-wielding,

modern-day

pirates.

        The action really picks up in the second half of the book, where the

frenzied submarine crew fights desperately for survival, trying a variety

of methods to escape their potential watery grave.

        The alien organism significantly becomes more of a deadly threat; it

could easily decimate life on Earth if it accomplishes its hungry goals.

        Eric Red has written a variety of motion picture scripts, including the

original 1986 movie "The Hitcher" starring Rutger Hauer. He's also

directed films for Showtime, Paramount, Warner Bros. and others.

        While there are distinct similarities to a trio of underwater

movies that

came out in 1989 ("The Abyss", "Leviathan" and "DeepStar Six", this could

easily be made into a very scary motion picture.

        Although this is only his second novel and could use a bit

more character development, it's highly entertaining, providing solid

escapism and tense suspense.

        Ray Walsh, owner of East Lansing's Curious Book Shop, has

reviewed thrillers and crime novels regularly since 1987.

Find this book and other great titles

at the Curious Book Shop, an independent 

book shop in East Lansing, founded in 1969.

Curious Book Shop

307 East Grand River Avenue

East Lansing, Michigan

517.332.0112

This review was originally published by the Lansing State Journal on October 19, 2014.