I bought this book at Book Fair Australia in February 2026. As with many of the books I buy direct from the author who I’ve never read before I took a punt. This one seems to have paid off. It’s a book that demonstrates the strength of the sea and that ancient predator of the sea, sharks. At 91 pages it’s a novella rather than a full-length novel. I read it several weeks ago and pondering it now I feel it’s a good length. I don’t think I’d want to read any more terror than is already here, it’d be too much and I’d have nightmares for weeks.
It’s the story of three brothers who get together every year for a weekend of fishing, or drinking. They all have their own lives and this is one time when they get away and forget their problems. Until they find the wreck of the yacht Seraphine with some of the passengers still aboard. How they try to bring everyone back to safety when they end up with their own problems is only one part of this book.
Things I noted while reading. Only two things, the other I wrote down this evening while reminding myself of the text.
Page 34. The shark is measured in feet. Maybe this has something to do with fishing and that’s just how you measure your catch…or the one that got away. I don’t know, but it jarred with me. This book is meant to be modern with mobile phones and yet the shark is measured in imperial units.
Page 50. The description of blood is exactly how is smells to me. Rust mixed with salt. I felt it was a good description.
Page 80. We’re given a description of one of the brothers. He builds a house, sells it, builds another and sells that. He says it’s something to keep him busy, just noise. I thought it was a good description of today’s life for many people. We seem to have lost the ability to sit and just do nothing for a while.
Page 85. The brothers hook the shark and then the line goes slack. On reeling it in a piece of gum with teeth embedded in it are still attached to the hook. I was researching the best word to describe sharks and discovered that sharks have their teeth embedded in their gums rather than their jaws. Apparently sharks will lost 30,000 teeth in their lifetime.
Anyway, I thought this well written. Next time I see the author I’ll be talking to them about the other books they have written. There’s a good chance I’ll buy them too.
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