BOOK REPORT

It's not safe to go back in the library! This weeks report takes a bite out of many strange happenings on a Long Island beach. The happenings? A string of murders! The culprit? A great white, killer shark! This week we read the legendary, seventies, two million copy selling novel by Peter Benchley that inspired one of Steven Spielberg and modern cinemas most magnificent, monster masterpieces. Years before he unleashed a theme park full of prehistoric creatures that made for one sensational, spiritual sequel. After beginning the year reading Ernest Hemingway's timeless classic 'The Old Man And The Sea' it was only right we ended the year with this update. One that sees the central man in this characterization overcoming the odds of the mob, a town convinced by the press that blood is on his hands when he tried to do the right thing, a wife growing tired and bored of his love and of course one, great, big white. If this struggle for survival against the odds isn't an inspiring enough theme for you then the accounts of shark attacks will leave you with some cold, chilled, tense and taught pages in this top novel, thriller. Books before movies don't get much better than this. We're going to need a bigger bookshelf. TIM DAVID HARVEY.