Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book

Thresher

Rate this book
In the aftermath of a hurricane, a series of strange events plague the coastal waters off Florida. People go into the water and never return. Corpses of killer whales drift ashore, ravaged from enormous bite marks. A fishing trawler is found adrift, with a mysterious gash in its hull. Transferred to the coastal town of Merit, police officer Leonard Riker uncovers the horrible reality of an enormous Thresher shark lurking off the coast. Forty feet in length, it has taken a territorial claim to the waters near the town harbor. Armed with three-inch teeth, a scythe-like caudal fin, and unmatched aggression, the beast seeks to kill anything sharing the waters.

265 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 8, 2018

About the author

Michael R. Cole

32 books99 followers
Michael R. Cole is an author of creature horror and science fiction. He was born in Toledo, Ohio and grew up in lower Michigan. He has a profound love for monster movies and book as well as the action genre. In addition to writing, his hobbies include martial arts and fishing.

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think?
Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars
219 (33%)
4 stars
250 (38%)
3 stars
137 (20%)
2 stars
36 (5%)
1 star
15 (2%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 115 reviews
Profile Image for Peter Topside.
Author 5 books1,265 followers
August 5, 2024
There was absolutely nothing wrong with this book. The characters were all interesting and evolve well throughout the story, there was plenty of action and creature feature gore, and the whole thing was just a fun, entertaining ride in the vein of Jaws. Maybe it’s because I’ve read so many gigantic, killer shark books, but they all all just seem to follow the exact same formula. You have a rough and tough mercenary seaman, some level of law enforcement or government official, a corrupt official or rich enthusiast putting the pressure on everyone to protect some vested interest, etc. The stories open up with the initial attacks or project plan, shark is found and goes wild, officials try to keep things quiet, and it becomes an all out war at sea to take down the megalodon, great white, or whatever brand of shark. Here was a thresher, whose individual trait is using its tail to subdue its prey. But I don’t want this review to sound like I didn’t enjoy myself here. It just followed the same basic plot points of its predecessors. However, I don’t know how creative one can get with a concept that’s been done to death over the last several decades. Greig Beck had a really unique approach in his first Fathomless novel, which I loved, but that’s the only one that comes to mind, as far as reinventing the wheel. If you love this subspecies (Yes, another terrible pun.) of horror and can’t get enough of it, then this is for you.
Profile Image for Marie.
1,034 reviews347 followers
March 6, 2020
Shark! Shark! Everybody get out of the water!

Hurricane Deckard sweeps through the small coastal town of Merit bringing with it all kinds of sea life including an enormous shark. Not just any shark, but a Thresher shark. Normally a Thresher shark is not big, but this one is four times bigger than a great white shark. The Thresher decides that it wants to stay in the area so it starts setting its territorial mark off the coast of Merit and it starts defending the area by killing off anything that comes into its territory including any and all sea life, plus human lives as well.

There is a great group of characters in this book, including Officer Leonard Riker and his trainee, Allison Metzler, Chief Crawford, and two marine biologists, Dr. Stafford and Robert Nash. Each character has problems and issues of their own along with trying to deal with the invasion of the shark into their town.

The story is fast paced and just flows along to the point where it feels as if you are experiencing the terror too!

I was very impressed by the detailed research the author went through to describe everything related to sharks, especially the Thresher. I do not know much about sharks, so I had never heard of a Thresher before this book, so I looked it up as I wanted to see what the shark really looked like and the Threasher looks wicked as it has a long tail which they use for whipping their prey paralyzing them before it moves in for the kill.

There is lots of suspense, action, chaos, blood, and gore throughout the book!

It kept me up the last few nights till the early hours of the morning as I couldn't hardly put the book down. Giving this one five stars.

Profile Image for Melissa (Mel’s Bookshelf).
508 reviews308 followers
August 26, 2018
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!

Would I recommend Thresher?

If you are a fan of shark/monster/creature thrillers then you should enjoy this one!

*I received a copy of Thresher from the publisher Severed Press and BooksGoSocial via NetGalley to read and review.

For more reviews check out my
Blog
Instagram
Twitter
Facebook
Profile Image for Dennis.
660 reviews310 followers
April 10, 2020
I made a complete mess of this supposed buddy-read.

For a couple of days summer returned to Heidelberg. Kinda crazy when you think about it.

description

description

description

I mean it’s the middle of October, and people were playing beachvolleyball!

description

Crazy!

Anyways, me being more the sitting in a café with a book kind of guy than the playing beachvolleyball in October wacko (no offense!), I packed this book for a trip to the old town. It was basically the only one of my upcoming reads that didn’t seem to be completely unfit for reading in the sunshine. Because it is SPOOKTOBER after all!

After a couple of chapters I realized that this book has quite the long buildup. So I thought, okay, let’s get through this and see where it all goes. And for a long time it didn’t really go anywhere. Just more buildup. And then I realized I was at around 40% already and suddenly we were going somewhere and *whoops* it sucked me in completely. And here we are, I finished it today. Sorry, Cathy! That was kinda bad on my part. :-/

So what’s it about? Well, as the cover probably told you already, it’s another shark book. This time it isn’t a great white or a megalodon, though. It’s a thresher shark. Hence the title. Now, these type of sharks are usually no threat to humans. But of course some scientists' stupid-ass experiment has gone wrong and now we have a 40 ft. long thresher shark that’s in a really bad mood and attacks everything on and in the ocean. Oh, its caudal fin is another 40 ft. long, by the way. Makes for a pretty nasty whip. Whip whip hooray! It’s total mayhem.

But only after the long buildup that I mentioned above. The two main characters are two cops that couldn’t be much more clichéd. We have the hard-nosed, experienced guy that has a drinking problem and a dead wife to deal with. He doesn’t like to talk, and if he does he usually only mutters some cool one-liners. I pictured him as Arnold Schwarzenegger the whole time. And when his partner actually brought this up, I couldn’t help but chuckle a bit. His partner, of course, is the rookie cop that only got assigned to him because of her connections, but has actually a very good reason for taking on the job and tries to get along with her grumpy partner. Which doesn’t work at all, before it ultimately does. You know the story. But I have to say after a couple of chapters, that included some eye-rolling on my part, I actually began to like the two a lot. And also, the buddy-dynamic between them worked quite well.

When the plot finally started to move, the author had created a pretty cool male main character that is reminiscent of 80’s action movie heroes and a female partner that is highly likable and absolutely able to stand up to him.

Then the book turns into Jaws (the movie!) with all the familiar ingredients in place. The mayor who stupidly tries to cover up everything in order to keep business running (a sailing competition is about to enter town, and bad press is undesirable), a crazy fisherman who gets hired to kill the shark, our cop duo that’s accompanying him and his crew on that endeavor, a marine biologist that prefers different methods to capture the shark, and of course the big bad thresher shark itself.

The second half of the book was extremely entertaining and the ending, unlike Jaws (the book), is actually that good that I’m almost willing to round up to five stars. Almost. Because I think bigeye thresher sharks are actually kinda cute, and that made it a little hard for me to be scared.

As an action movie with a big, angry shark and a 35-year-old Arnie this would be pure gold, though.
Profile Image for Warren Fournier.
737 reviews121 followers
July 12, 2021
This excellent scifi horror thriller is surprisingly complex, with a multitude of themes and a sprinkling of both conservative and progressive politics amongst some spectacular action sequences and classic underwater creature mayhem.

Obligatory nods to "Jaws" abound, including a mayor of a coastal town who cares only for their political career rather than the safety of the community and tourists. Also, the last third of the book is largely centered around the crew of a fishing vessel seeking to take down the killer shark. In this case, the creature is a 40 foot thresher shark, made gigantic and even more savage by the ingesting of experimental growth hormone products. Due to swelling of it's primitive brain, it is driven mad, attacking anything that moves in or floats on the water as a threat, thus providing a fairly satisfactory explanation of how a fish can pose such a threat to seafaring vessels.

The well-paced action is also balanced by an interesting cast of characters. I've read too many of these modern horrors where every character, even those with whom we are supposed to sympathize, is a whiny, snarky, sarcastic ass. The dialogue of such stories is nothing but a series of put-downs and cusses, sounding like a locker room full of 8th grade boys. Though there is some of that here, there are plenty of refreshingly human personalities depicting people who respect one another and who stand for something. The bad guys are kind of stereotyped, and the main male protagonist is a drunken grump, but as a whole I was invested in the cast and their fates.

The book also delivers more than just grotesque carnage from a mouth full of teeth, from it's highly sensitive ecological messaging, to it's exploration of grief and alcoholism, to it's support of law enforcement and it's depiction of cowardly and ineffectual politicians scapegoating their police force to hide their own incompetence, to it's general distrust of the news media.

But most importantly, this novel will make you afraid to get back in the water... Again. The perfect book to read during Shark Week, during your summer vacation, or anytime.
Profile Image for Cathy .
1,812 reviews275 followers
October 20, 2019
“Cracks of thunder pounded the chaotic night sky, scrambled with the endless howling of the hundred-thirty-seven mile per hour wind.“

Starting well, going downhill from there... The writing of my previous creature feature horror was definitely better. Here I keep coming across gems like this:

“ When working out contracts with institutes, he explained his studies were for studying migratory habits of marine life.“
Studies were for studying? Just one example of the fairly bad writing in this book.

Added to that are stilted info dumps that mess with the flow of the story. And info gets repeated unnecessarily.

„The nutrition it took in several hours before had long worn off, and its enormous body demanded nutrition.“
Maybe the book‘s editor was eaten by the shark?

There is a lot of backstory about Riker. Which is nice on one hand, but not well done or balanced with any of the other characters. I would have preferred decent scientific background on the marine biology we come across. And scientists that act and sound like scientists.

I have no issue with mindless fun and B-Movie level schlock. But even for that I prefer decent writing. If the writing is sloppy, repetitive, grammatically challenged and badly paced, I am out. This book is in dire need of a better editor. Not picking up anything else by this author. Skimming from the halfway point, DNF at 60%.

About the author: http://www.severedpress.com/authors/m...
Profile Image for Rissa.
1,476 reviews45 followers
July 28, 2018
Thersher 3.25⭐️
An accident a terrible accident causing a ship to sink in the middle of the ocean. Helicopters are airlifting passengers off but its going to take time. With blood spilled and chaos spreading when a shark is in view everyone needs to just try and stay calm.

⭐️ The writing is beautiful. We are immediately submerged into the world and the accident. We see the chaos after the inital hit and then things start to go wrong and more wrong and it was gripping. Becuase you know a shark is coming and i hate sharks. Like fear them with a passion but this sounded so good.

-.25 It lacked the drama and action that a thriller needs.

+.25 He did an excellent job of briging the tension right away but he lost the energy and power almost immediately.

⭐️ Briging the fear to the reader within the first chapter we have blood being spilled and a shark is in sight.

-.5 We are drawn in to the action right away but then we get a step back and it was dull. I was so drawn in and then la de dah...


⭐️ when the action was present it had me drawn into the story completely. It just took a while and were few and far between.

-.5 saying that everything was good, crime was low, kids were smiling is just saying everything is about to go to hell in their perfect little world.

-.5 One problem I came across was that the whole book is in italics. Which makes it difficult to read. I dont mind italics for flashbacks but the entire book, that hurt my brain.

Thank you so much to booksgosocial via netgalley for sending me an ARC copy of Thersher- by Michael Cole. This will be released on July 8, 2018.
All opinions are my own.
Profile Image for Gilbert Stack.
Author 78 books76 followers
February 10, 2022
I’ve been a fan of shark stories since I first read Call It Courage by Armstrong Sperry when I was still in elementary school. Now Peter Benchley’s Jaws stands as the benchmark against which all such stories are measured and Michael Cole’s Thresher holds up pretty well in this company. At its heart, it’s a story of a rogue fish terrorizing a community. It also has a law enforcement officer with a serious problem (not fear of the water this time, but an inability to come to grips with his wife’s death), shady politicians, and a couple of very likeable other characters—enough to make it quite probable that some of these people are going to get eaten by the titular shark.

The build up is good. The shark is a terrible danger right from the beginning, coming off a little more like a megalodon than a great white, but this gets explained about midway through the story. In fact, in those early chapters, a lot more author energy is expended building up the cast than it is on the fish that attracted all the readers.

About midway through the novel, we find out that we are actually reading science fiction. The thresher, and what a great shark to build this story on because it hunts and fights very differently than a great white does, has consumed some experimental growth hormones that has radically boosted its size. The hormone has the additional effect of making the animal very aggressive. And since the government was involved in testing the growth hormone, a certain powerful politician wishes to cover up that his experiment has resulted in the deaths of a lot of people. So in addition to worrying about a man-eating predator wrecking boats in the nearby ocean, the heroes also have to fight a government coverup that is preventing news of the true extent of the danger to get out.

Now this is where the one seriously wrong turn that the author makes factors into the story. The heroes kill and capture a second fish that has been infected by the growth hormone—so they have evidence they can use to actually prove what is happening—but the scientist who made the discovery decides to use the dead fish as bait for the giant thresher. I hope I don’t have to dwell on how stupid this is. Not only does it dispose of badly needed evidence, every reader will instantly realize it puts some of the nicer characters in the story in serious risk.

That being said, the hunt for the shark and the climatic ending gave me all the thrills and excitement and satisfaction that I could have hoped for in this novel. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

If you liked this review, you can find more at www.gilbertstack.com/reviews.
Author 8 books17 followers
September 20, 2018
When I first saw this book, I expected something close to Jaws. I loved Jaws and have always loved sharks. While this book is similar to Jaws, it is equally unique.

I love the fact that the author chose a shark that was naturally aggressive. He didn't create a new "rogue shark" theory. The way that he worked in the twists and reasoning behind his plot was amazing. I couldn't find any holes and didn't have any questions left unanswered.

The characters were well created and well rounded. Each had their own backstory that made them seem real. The ending was perfect. I think that if it ended any differently, I would have been upset.

Please, someone in the movie industry, get this book and make a movie. Just make sure to stick to the book because it is perfect!
Profile Image for BookLoversLife.
1,826 reviews9 followers
October 22, 2023
Another fun filled, deep sea adventure from Michael Cole!!

I just finished another book from this author and immediately dived into this one. I actually enjoyed this a lot more than Creature from the Crevasse, and I think it's because the plot was plausible and the fact it's a shark!.

The plot was fast paced and exciting. I liked how we learned about what happened the Thresher. I liked that there was a little more science in the facts surrounding the Thresher's disposition, and I especially liked that this had more action with the shark than the authors previous work. It made for a faster and more entertaining read!

The characters were quite cliched, but likable. Riker is a deeply flawed character, and I couldn't help but root for him!! I enjoyed the dynamics between Riker and his new partner as well, and enjoyed the interactions between them.

In all, this was a good read. I'm not a fan of the open water, and this just made me respect it more. Sharks are beautiful creatures, but they are scary and deadly, and reading about the Thresher here just made them even scarier!! I'm delighted the author went with a different shark than a great white one, it made for a far more interesting read. I'm hoping for a sequel because that ending left me with hopes of one!! A fun, entertaining and quick read!!
Profile Image for Nafis Fuad.
31 reviews
July 20, 2018
Another creature feature novel feeding to the fire of portraying sharks as merciless killing machines, bent on destroying and devouring anything and everything in their paths.
Not much different from other thrillers featuring a cartilaginous antagonist - a huge apex predator arriving out of the blue in the seas surrounding a coastal town, unfortunate people becoming food for the formidable predator, some experts who figure out what is going on and try to stop it but ultimately meet a gruesome end and a macho hero who in the end eliminates the beast and saves the day.
One big aspect that differed from other novels is the shark itself - instead of featuring the overly utilized great white shark or the equally overused mythical megalodon - this novel featured another species altogether. A thresher shark - mutated following exposure to an experimental growth hormone that not only made it grow to humongous proportions but also sent its territoriality, aggression, and not to mention hunger into overdrive.
The most interesting part about this monster is that - along with the massive size and razor sharp teeth trademark of the monsters of the past that we know and love; it has an additional, extraordinary weapon of mass destruction. A whip like upper lobe of its caudal fin, nearly matching its body length of an astounding 40 feet - that can be used in a lightning fast motion to stun and dismember intended prey items and also maim and kill competitors and threats. Throughout the novel, the beast wrecks havoc on marine life and sea faring vessels alike with its tail. Credit goes to the author for imagining a monster with a different twist.
Other than that, nothing much differentiates this novel from the countless others following a similar plot line.
Nevertheless, it was a fun read. The protagonist is complex - suffering from psychological wounds inflicted upon him by personal tragedy. He just wants to drink his way out of his miserable existence but in the end pulls through to do the right thing and helps to save the day. The female protagonist is also admirable. Thrust into a situation beyond her wishes, she makes the most of it and puts her life on the line for the greater good. The human antagonists show the reality of some peoples' indifference to nature and the environment - and their reckless destruction of the wonderful and important life forms sharing our planet just to meet their own ends.
An entertaining novel to read during the lazy summer afternoons. Three stars.
Profile Image for Empress Reece (Hooked on Books).
915 reviews81 followers
October 1, 2018
3.5 stars...

Another decent sea creature story. There was a little too much repetition though. The author explained before 'every' kill how the shark tracks its prey, how he sleeps, how he wakes, how he goes in for the kill etc. which was not needed. We got the gist after the first few strikes and explanations. The story could have been shortened some too without all of the redundancy.

I was actually planning on rating 3 stars until about the last 30% of the book. The non-stop action from there on out was the redeeming factor.
Profile Image for Emma Ounsworth.
347 reviews4 followers
October 2, 2018
In the aftermath of a hurricane, a series of strange events plague the coastal waters off Florida. People go into the water and never return. Corpses of killer whales drift ashore, ravaged from enormous bite marks. A fishing trawler is found adrift, with a mysterious gash in its hull.
Transferred to the coastal town of Merit, police officer Leonard Riker uncovers the horrible reality of an enormous Thresher shark lurking off the coast. Forty feet in length, it has taken a territorial claim to the waters near the town harbor. Armed with three-inch teeth, a scythe-like caudal fin, and unmatched aggression, the beast seeks to kill anything sharing the waters.

A good solid thriller/horror with good characters and a fast paced plot, the words were sometimes a bit scientifically monotonous but the author obviously knows his stuff.
I’m really into shark entertainment at the minute so this book was a hidden gem for me, the main characters, Riker and a young rookie called Metzler actually make a great team and as grumpy as Riker is, I found it hard to dislike him, they had good back stories, immersing me well into the story and I cared about other important characters too such as the scientist and his assistant, who were interesting and brave.
This novel was original in that it sometimes switched to the sharks point of view which was unexpected and added to the plot, if you like Jaws and other creature features, this book is one you’ll want to read.
Profile Image for C.J. Daley.
Author 1 book102 followers
April 5, 2024
This is another ocean horror, and my second in a row from the author.

This novel uses a bigeye thresher specifically, and I was really interested as to what the author was going to do, as they are not considered a threat to humans like whatsoever. They do however, get their name from their thresher (or scythe) like caudal fin, which they use to literally whack and stun prey, so I figured there was definitely room to make it scary. Oh and as the synopsis boasts…the author also decided to make it 40ft long which is about double its full size!

The author did a good job with tackling the issue I posed above. There is not only a reason why it’s so large, but there is also a reason why it’s attacking and being so territorial. I won’t say more to avoid spoilers, but this horror is definitely dipping its toes in the realm of science fiction.

This one is also kind of heavy on the cop stuff like Megalodon: Bloodbath (and others like it, like Jaws), but it takes a bit of a different approach this time. A renowned cop takes the job at a coastal precinct after some unfortunate downturns at his previous employer. His new partner, and the person he’s training, takes on this kind of found family/friendship trope but it’s done well.

Personally a 4/5* for me.
Profile Image for Ami Morrison.
659 reviews18 followers
August 2, 2018
In the aftermath of a hurricane, a series of strange events plague the coastal waters off Florida. People go into the water and never return. Corpses of killer whales drift ashore, ravaged from enormous bite marks. A fishing trawler is found adrift, with a mysterious gash in its hull.
Transferred to the coastal town of Merit, police officer Leonard Riker uncovers the horrible reality of an enormous Thresher shark lurking off the coast. Forty feet in length, it has taken a territorial claim to the waters near the town harbor. Armed with three-inch teeth, a scythe-like caudal fin, and unmatched aggression, the beast seeks to kill anything sharing the waters.

Thresher: A Deep Sea Thriller by Michael Cole. Published by Severed Press in July 2018. I received a Kindle version of Thresher from Netgalley in exchange for an honest and fair review. Originally posted on my book blog.

Is it possible to get a high octane adrenaline rush from just reading a book? Yes. Yes, it is. Thresher is just that sort of book. Shortly after beginning, the story explodes into action. And it never stops! I was pleasantly surprised to find myself hanging on every sentence, mouth hanging open, waiting to see what was going to happen next. I read a lot of the sea creature books put out by Severed Press, and this one is right up there at the top. Each chapter the tension (and your adrenaline) would ramp up even higher. Just when you have 5% more to read, and you think the shark has been dealt with, BAM! More action! More Adrenaline! Explosions! Boats sinking! People getting tossed around! Chaos, confusion, everyone swimming for their lives! Once I started reading, I had a hard time putting it down. Had a very modern action pulp feel to it. I loved every min of it.

The characters are some classic archetypes we know and love. The heavy-drinking cop and the partner that cares. The police chief who wants to do the right thing but his hands are tied because of a power tripping mayor who wants to keep everything hushed up. A real nasty trio, brought in to attempt to kill the shark. The scientist who is trying to do the right thing. The bribe-able newspaper man who just wants a cut of the cash. Even though we have seen these types before, the chemistry between the main characters is palpable and I really hope we see more of these characters in the future (more on that later). I can’t mention characters without mentioning the shark! A great big ol’ Thresher shark! Like I said earlier, I read a lot of Severed Press books, which are predominantly filled with sea creature / shark titles. I can’t get enough of them. I will read all the shark books. The shark in this book really stands out because you don’t often see a Thresher shark in the staring role like this! Normally it is the Megalodon or the Great Whites that get the spotlight. And that is for any shark title, not just the books coming from Severed Press. So, as a shark lover, I thought it was really cool getting to see a different kind of shark like this! Really spiced things up and gave us a view of something different while still getting our shark fiction fix.

I don’t want to say too much about the plot, because I don’t want to give away any big spoilers, but I will say that it’s not just your average Thresher shark. I really liked the twist the story gives us about how the Thresher shark ended up so huge and aggressive. It was a pretty interesting turn that I was not suspecting. The epilogue – again, I can’t say much without ruining it. SORRY! – was jaw dropping and I really, really hope we see the author follow this up in another book. It would even make a great series with the same cast. I really hope Mr. Cole doesn’t leave us hanging with that very last page of the book! 😮

Thresher: A Deep Sea Thriller was another highly entertaining title from Severed Press. This novel is sure to get your adrenaline pumping the whole time you are reading. A nice cast of characters that would be fun to see in a series. This novel packs in the action and never slows down. A very entertaining book that other shark fiction and or action lovers will enjoy.
Profile Image for Jess.
546 reviews68 followers
May 31, 2023
This should be a movie, it is very Jaws but with a different kind of shark with a twist. Visually it could be very cool.
First let me lay down some shark facts: The Thresher stuns its prey with its long tail and then feasts. In nature it is not an aggressive shark and is actually quite shy, they are beautiful, not territorial blood thirsty monsters. The book is very clear on this as well, that this is no normal Thresher shark. They do not behave like this so that makes this shark so much more intriguing.

I like sharks, I also respect them and mostly stay out of the oceans as that is their living room and I don't want to be bit. This story probably lends more to the fear mongering side of shark stories but the author touches numerous times on how hunting sharks is bad and people who think it is good are the bad guys in the story.
Honestly this is pretty dumb, but you know how when your reading something and there are awful characters, just wretched people along side our heroes and you know their purpose in the story is to get their comeuppance and die gruesome deaths?

Well this book does not disappoint and I appreciated those comeuppances.
Profile Image for Echo Bennett.
178 reviews13 followers
July 4, 2023
As if a hurricane isn’t enough for Merit, a coastal town in Florida, people start going missing after they take a swim and large whales turn up, dead with large bite marks, and a fishing trawler lies, like a ghost ship with a huge slash in its side. What murderer lies in the deep with 3 inch long teeth and a tail fin that spans the entire width of its forty feet? A thresher shark, that’s what.
But, this is no ordinary Thresher shark as the people begin to realize, but something much more deadly, that kills for the sake of killing and is an unstoppable force in the waters. It’s a race against time as a few brave souls gather to try to destroy this beast before it takes out all the tourists who start arriving ….
This book reads to me like a modern Jaws story, but with a Thresher shark and a few unexpected twists and turns that makes it more than just a clever retelling of a shark wreaking havoc on a coastal town. I loved it and loved reading about a shark I didn’t know about! Very cool to learn something new when reading fiction! Great characters, great storyline and yes, plenty of teeth, gore and body parts. What’s a shark book without that?
I highly recommend this book or anything else of Michael Cole’s because I am sure all of his books are going to be loads of water horror fun!
Profile Image for Kevin Wheeler.
30 reviews
August 31, 2024
This reminds me of a si-fi original movie but obviously it’s better from a reading point of view. Very solid character surprisingly I like the chemistry between Riker and metzler with riker giving metzler a hard time to the point of reconsidering her being in the law enforcement riker being the best well known officer/ detective. The side characters are pretty good with dr Stafford the marine biologist and he’s apprentice Robert Nash I like them two together with them being independent biologists. I don’t care to much about the trio at the end the feel like comic book villains in a way and one of my complaints is when they talking about the thresher living as a mean shark attacking other sharks they could have left that out but good thing it just here and there. I like the lore of the thresher how it became so vicious and ruthless cool back story. The action scenes are good and do make you feel the dangers like the characters are in. I like the ending it wraps up good and nice.
Profile Image for Alexander Draganov.
Author 29 books151 followers
August 1, 2022
Майкъл Коул е писател, който се обляга на тропи, до такава степен утвърдени в жанра, че ги наричаме клишета. Въпреки това той има стила да ги направи интересни, правейки образите си живи, а в тази книга и по-дълбоки от очакваното, като обаче нито в един момент не забравя за какво четем подобни заглавия и осигурява екшън на макс. Акулата лисица е любопитен вид, за който не знаех и начина, по който авторът я е направил чудовищна е попадение. Кулминацията в последната битка, включваща Райкър, Алисън и група лоши бракониери, намерили майстора си е епохална. Мислех го след Scar, а сега го казвам – това няма да е последната книга на Коул, която чета!
Цялото ви ревю може да прочетете в Цитаделата:
https://citadelata.com/thresher/
97 reviews1 follower
March 7, 2022
This book will not win any awards but I thought it was great. It's the equivalent of an old SciFy channel creature feature that would come on after 9pm. This book hits every trope you could possibly want in a creature feature:

Hard ass protagonist with a past and his rookie apprentice? Check

Over the top death sequences? Check

Shady politicians and cover ups? Check

Giant Carnivor with a taste for human flesh? Check

Need I continue? If you want something deep and engaging, this is not the book for you. If you want something shallow and simple that will flick the switches in your lizard brain that calls for violence and mayhem then look no further.
Profile Image for agentX2zero.
123 reviews5 followers
June 16, 2020
Think of the most memorable scenes from every Jaws movie, add the secret government experiment plot of the 70s Pirhana movie, and replace 'Meg' for a giant Thresher shark and you've pretty much got 'Thresher'. Note, this isn't necessarily a bad thing and I still really enjoyed the read, but realise that you won't be reading high literature nor great originality.

3.5 Stars.
Profile Image for Cheryl.
2,371 reviews60 followers
July 24, 2018
An updated JAWS retake

This was an enjoyable giant monster shark redo. Coastal town in Florida plus National Sailing competition plus ambitious acting mayor plus an out of control monster thresher shark. Sound rather familiar?

This was a fun read in spite of some clunky language at times. It had some good character development of the two main characters - a rookie female cop and her mentor, a veteran cop with lots of personal issues.

There were no huge surprises in this story but if you were a fan of the old creature feature movies, you should enjoy this.

I received this book from BooksGoSocial through Net Galley in the hopes that I would read it and leave an unbiased review.
Profile Image for SarahBerry.
74 reviews3 followers
August 14, 2022
This book was so freaking awesome!!! I couldn't put it down. I spent every second I wasn't reading this book thinking about what was waiting within its unread pages. A seriously good read for fans of JAWS or any creature related horror movies like Lake Placid or Anaconda.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 115 reviews

Can't find what you're looking for?

Get help and learn more about the design.