Swamp

by Peter Tremayne

It was huge, reptilian, a flesh-eating nightmare from hell! Sometimes this monstrous survivor of the primitive past would emerge into the foul, fetid air of the swamps and kill whatever crossed its path. Not even the worst hurricane to strike Florida in years could stop its bloodthirsty rampage.

Genres: Horror

192 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1989

About the author

Peter Berresford Ellis (born 10 March 1943) is a historian, literary biographer, and novelist who has published over 90 books to date either under his own name or his pseudonyms Peter Tremayne and Peter MacAlan. He has also published 95 short stories. His non-fiction books, articles and academic papers have made him acknowledged as an authority on Celtic history and culture. As Peter Tremayne, he is the author of the international bestselling Sister Fidelma mystery series. His work has appeared in 25 languages.

Reviews

[Evans Light · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just finished reading SWAMP by Peter Tremayne last night. Wish I could say it was good but it wasn't. The prose was so old-school and dusty that Joe Friday from Dragnet was the voice narrating the book in my head as I read. 😊

[Sandra Knapp · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exciting, creepy, and a lot of fun to read. I thoroughly enjoyed this book from start to finish, with one exception. I wish whoever edited the book had done just a little better job of doing it. My only complaint is that I am reading along about what is happening at one location and then without any pause or hesitation at all, I am in the middle of another location and what is happening there, and before I fully realize we have jumped locations, I'm at another place altogether or back at the first one. The only demarcation line at all was the paragraph. Maybe just a couple extra lines of spacing between them would have forwarned me we were changing something.

Otherwise, this was a really fun story. Lots of excitement and and a really nasty beasty at the center of it all. But you have to be on your toes because this one changes directions with no warning at all. Still a good read if you like "monsters" lurking where you least expect them. And I do!! :D

[Charles · Rating 2 out of 5]

Apparently quite a few folks reviewing this read the ebook, and there must have been some serious formatting errors. I read the paperback and didn't have any of those problems. The story started out pretty well and held my interest for the most part. It was fast paced. My problem was the ending. I was on target to give it 3 and a half to 4 stars until the ending. I'm going to reveal my problem with that ending below, so if you don't want to know, don't read further.


Spoiler:
The heroes must triumph through their own actions. The villain, or monster, or whatever the antagonist is in any book, cannot be defeated by events not orchestrated by the heroes. Unfortunately here, the heroes had nothing to do with the creature's defeat. Big, big disappointment for me.

[Mr Chuck · Rating 2 out of 5]

Boring.

Got really boring during the end and extremely obvious. When the creature got stuck by lighting I gave up trying to enjoy it and just wanted to finish.

[Laura Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book had all the elements of a good horror story. It takes place in the swamps of Florida. The author gives you some good guys, some bad guys, some really bad guys, and something monstrous that doesn’t discriminate over its chow. And…there’s a hurricane bearing down on all of them.

See, I told you it had some good stuff. And I really had fun. I must confess, being a southern gal, I like stories set in my area. This is my favorite book by Peter Tremayne. I’ve read several and something about this one stood out. Perhaps it was the character development. I enjoy character driven stories and this had a bunch of them. Plus, it took some time to figure out who were the real bad guys.

With lots of intrigue and all the monster stompin and munching you could wish for, I’d recommend this one. And I feel I should mention the ending. Wait. There is one. It just feels like it’s left open for your interpretation. I chose what to believe and you can too, or you can go with what the author gives you. Either way, its wrapped up.

[Sean · Rating 1 out of 5]

Author Peter Tremayne's horror novels tend to be built on great ideas that just aren't effectively executed. Though Tremayne's book has promise--swamps and the unknown terrors that lurk within them are always great settings for horror--it's simply not all that well written. The characters are like most of Tremayne's protagonists in that they are sketchily drawn and rather uninteresting. The monsters are--also in typical Tremayne fashion--not quite as terrible as they first seem to be and because of that the story trudges along slowly with only occasional sparks of semi-interest. Other than the setting and the kernel of a solid plot that could have amounted to something, SWAMP! just doesn't have much to offer.

[Crystal Fenerty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fabulous book

I state straight up, there many typos in this ebook. Very obvious typos. Such as “Wow” instead on “Run”, “Tm” instead of “I’m“. But regardless of the horrible editing this book was so much fun to read that I was able to ignore the errors and just enjoy the story.
I highly recommend this book to others and I honestly wish there was a sequel, as it end in such a way that could lead to a continuation of the story, yes in no way is a cliffhanger or unresolved conclusion..

[Valadia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome Book!!!

Other people will tell you the plot, I will tell you how much fun the book was! It isn't a hard read, it is a fun, easy beach read. A really good story that will take you away from it all, with a (potentially??) Happy ending. Maybe..
If you are a lover of B rated horror flicks (e.g., Godzilla), you will love this!! Great, big nasty monster, people getting killed.. fun stuff. Enjoy!!

[Leslie Wiederspan · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was an average story about a reptile from prehistoric times rampaging through the swamps of Florida. The ending was nice, but the overall story was just okay. It might have been better if there was a better transition between groups of characters. No pause, no break, nothing, just here we are in a car and now we have 2 new people in a restaurant. Or, we are in the restaurant and suddenly there is an airboat on the swamps... Just not very well written in that respect.

[Val Moss · Rating 3 out of 5]

Goodish

The story was good but I wouldn't let whoever edited it edit anything else. That was terrible. Also the point of view hetween character had no separation or segway, for that reason it was hard to read. Woukd like to read his other book, but an worried it's the same editing and lack of character separation as this one.

[Kay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Swamp

I would have given it more stars except there was no separation of paragraphs. One moment they are discussing one event and the next moment the story moves on to another event and the paragraphs are not indented to show the change. Quite confusing. The ending was worth reading the entire book.

[John P Junod · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was very disappointed with this.

There are far too many character that are completely pointless. The constant switching perspectives gets annoying made it more so with the crappy paragraph structure makes hard to follow. The monster almost does nothing in this book, the criminal elements had more presence and importance.

I do not recommend this.

[Linda Collins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Swamp

Good concept for a book...Lots of action, with cartels, FBI agents, Park Rangers and of course 1 dinosaur....Only thing I did not like was that there were a lot of typos and plots ran into one another...

[Joy St John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entertaining read.

Story was good; Kept my attention. Characters were interesting. At times the transition between scenes and character points of view was confusing - that's why 4 stars, not 5. Pretty good, fun read though.

[Gen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good creature feature

If you enjoy Saturday evening monster movies you will enjoy this one. There are a number of typos but they did not detract from the story. I would recommend a good proofreader and editor. The talent is there but the execution is lacking.

[Scott Oliver · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not a bad read

Hold over from the age of dinosaurs runs amok in the Florida Everglades with Cuban gangsters, native Americans, voodoo worshipping group of black people who live in the swamp and use poison arrows and even a hurricane thrown in

[Jeanine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent creature story.. My only suggestion would that chapters would be helpful when switching point of view.

[KERRY MIDDIS · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent story, but I had to dock it a star as it shifted from one scene to another mid page which added undue confusion and annoyance! To change scenes, start a new chapter to make the story easier to follow. :)