Creatures
By Richard Masson
1979 Pocket Books
Paperback, 299 pages
This is another one I remembered
fondly from my teens and wanted to revisit, but I couldn’t find it among my
books. Very few survived the decades. Much to my chagrin, prices are pretty
high for this one now. I found an almost affordable one and grabbed it, so
intent was I on rereading it. I remember it as being very good, if a bit
disturbing with animal cruelty and racism.
Four horrible men, crocodile
hunters, are deep in the pit of the Fly River swamps in New Guinea. Karns is a
killer, a racist and a short-tempered asshole… and he’s the good guy in the
group. The others are even worse; Quilter, an Aussie croc-hater that would just
as soon kill everything in sight, Van Ocken, a deranged, murderous rapist with
a burned off face, and “Phobosuchus” Smith, an ousted professor whose insanity
has him believing there is a species of prehistoric crocodile out in those
swamps.
Meanwhile, a flight from
Australia to Tokyo, carrying about 130 passengers and crew, has a bit of
difficulty. In addition to faulty mechanics taking them off course, some of
those passengers are a real piece of work. One of them blows a hole in the back
end of the plane when he is spurned by a stewardess. The plane lands about 15
miles from the four murderous crazies. Among the few survivors are a pair of
mercenaries, a man who lost his family in the crash, a prostitute (yay!), some
stewardesses and the co-pilot. Will the crocodiles get them? Will the swamp
men? Both?
Masson weaves this tale
perfectly, going from the flight to the psycho-quartet, showing exactly how
each “side” deals with the disaster. The plane doesn’t crash land until 100
pages in, and the suspense is thick as swamp muck. Once it does and the swamp
men decide to go pillage the wreck (about 15 miles away through uncharted
swampland), Masson lays on another new round of tension. Then once they all
meet up… forget about it! Madness ensues.
I really can’t stress enough how
intense this book gets. Who will live? Who will die? Who will wish they had died
in the crash? Who is worse, the swampies or the survivors? Yes, those guys do
some horrible things to crocs but there is some comeuppance and the abundance
of hungry crocodiles is a wonderful thing to think about.
All this and more, behind a
killer cover painting by Roger Kastel (a painting I’m lucky enough to have seen
in person!) done in the style of his Jaws masterpiece. This book is
highly recommended.
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