Something's Down There
A Novel
-
-
4.1 • 7 Ratings
-
-
- $8.99
-
- $8.99
Publisher Description
The master of hard-boiled detective fiction is back -- and better than ever -- with Something's Down There, a blade-sharp thriller set among the islands of the Caribbean.
To the casual observer, Mako Hooker looks like any other grizzled fishing-boat captain trawling the Bermuda Triangle. He's content with his nets in the water and a beer in the cooler, but he's hardly your typical fisherman. Hooker is in fact a retired government operative taking a much-needed respite from his highly secret, highly lethal career in the States. But when local fishermen begin to fall prey to a mysterious sea creature the islanders dub "the eater," he discovers the truth in that old saw about the spy game: You're not retired from the Company until you're dead.
Is the monster a prehistoric beast rising from the depths? Or mines from a sunken WWII destroyer, only now shaken loose by the U.S. Navy's depth charges? Or the work of someone with an agenda even more deeply undercover than Hooker's?
Hooker quietly begins to investigate with the help of his unwitting fishing partner, Billy Bright; a local movie heiress, the seductive Judy Durant; and Hooker's old nemesis, Chana Sterling. The Company sent her as backup, but Hooker doesn't trust power-hungry government agents too far -- especially Chana, who once put a bullet in him for no good reason. As more boats are mauled and the islanders begin to panic, the action heats up and the players multiply: a Hollywood film company arrives on the scene, eager to turn live footage of "the eater" into box-office payoff, and the heavyweight film executive in charge looks suspiciously like Tony Pallatzo, a Brooklyn mobster from Hooker's violent past. As he moves steadily closer to the truth, Hooker realizes that someone (or something) is plotting to stop him, and only his rusty instincts will save him this time.
A riveting story of criminal intrigue, greed, romance, and the mysteries of the deep, Something's Down There showcases Mickey Spillane at his best.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Eighty-five-year-old Spillane (I, the Jury; Erection Set; Tomorrow I Die) shows little evidence of advanced age in this entertaining island adventure featuring ex-spook Mako Hooker and his Carib fishing partner, Billy Bright. Mako, retired on remote Peolle Island, devotes himself to drinking Miller Lite, fishing and boating, but he soon learns what aficionados of spy fiction already know well: you never really retire from the Company. Trouble arises on several fronts: a malevolent leviathan of unknown species begins slashing huge chunks out of the bottoms of fishing boats, and still-functioning WWII-era mines from sunken ships appear on the surface of the ocean, prompting the U.S. government to send in a team of agents and re-activate Hooker. Also in on the fun is ex-mobster Tony Pallatzo, now known as Anthony Pell, the head of a movie unit determined to capture the sea-dwelling monster on film, and lovely agent Chana, an old enemy against whom Hooker still holds a grudge: "for a second he wished he had been packing his .45 and the piece was in his hand with the hammer back so he could turn and shoot her guts right out of her beautiful belly and it would finally be all over with for all time." In Spillane's world, men still call women kiddo and baby and refer to each other as pals and buddies. True to his tough-guy heritage, Mako slays the dragon, finds himself a beautiful dame in the process and receives his just reward: "Muscles in her stomach rippled against his hands, saying quiet things that he could hardly believe." Classic Spillane. Forecast:There are surely enough of Spillane's original fans left to rack up respectable numbers for this enjoyable flashback to an earlier age.
