The fact is I love a horror set at sea. This goes back to my very first horror love - JAWS. Yes, I am a child of the 70s and when I was little, and wayyyy into sharks, everyone in the world (including my parents), were carrying around the paperback editions of the novel. I would stare at that thing forever, and then draw sharks. I watched PBS shows about sharks and had books upon books about sharks. When my parents invested (it was hugely expensive in 1976) in a VCR, one of the first things the recorded off the TV was the movie and I wore that thing out.
JAWS was the first, but I also loved Moby Dick. Now, the novel I have problems with (it's a bit thick and gets dreadfully boring), but I read the comic book adaptations or the various trimmed down version they made available for young adults. Plus, there was the movie which showed up regularly on the WGN TV show "Family Classics" with Gregory Peck as Ahab.
If it was at sea and was a thriller or action-y, I was there. So, I was anxious to tear into Blaine Daigle's A Dark and Endless Sea. I mean, the cover alone was enough to grab my attention. Then I started reading.
Whoa.
Daigle is relative new on the horror novel scene, but you wouldn't know it if I hadn't just given up that secret just now. This feels like the work of a seasoned pro.
First off, if you are one of those millennial or Gen-Z type who, for some reason, can't stand character and story development and must have action from word one, you might as well stop reading right here. Endless Sea takes its time and it is glorious. It is wonderful. The novel builds and builds and digs its claws and (to go with the sea theme) hooks into you and never once lets go.
The main character is Whitt Rogers, a man who seems to be on the run, but he has no idea why. In fact, he has no idea who he is, or his past. He is in Alaska, and a mysterious man tells him he got him a job on a crab fishing boat, but he doesn't know who the man is, or why he is here or how he got where he is.
We meet the crew, and soon learn that no one on the boat knows their past. They all suffer from horrible dreams. Whitt sees a town underwater, filled with bodies and the faces of the dead. All of them hear a constant song in the distance. The boat itself is commanded by a gigantic captain who says they can fish as much or as little as they want, but they must never ask him where they are going or why.
Then things get truly horrifying. With that set-up, things just keep getting worse and weirder and more terrifying. When the crew starts dying, every page feels like a dreadful thing. Can this get any worse? This can't possible get any worse for these guys? Then you turn the page and - DAMMIT, how the hell did it get that much worse?
I don't want to spoil anything, because you need to read this one for yourself. A compelling page turner, with each chapter increasing the sense of dread, ratcheting up the blood, the horror and the despair. It all leads to a devastating conclusion that somehow manages to tie up all of the various loose ends still hanging there in front of you.
Blaine Daigle is another of the Wicked House Publishing line up (of which, I am also one) and he has already published three novels through them. Each one gets better, and he learns fast. If this output keeps up, he'll have me beat in number of novels published before mid-2025.
If you love sea-faring tales of horror, then you simply cannot pass up A Dark and Endless Sea by Blaine Daigle. It is slow-burner that will leave you flipping those pages faster and faster to get the ending, the answers, and you'll white-knuckle your way through the horror all the way along.
If you'd also like to read any of my tales of terror and suspense, visit my Amazon store right here.
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