What do you think?
Rate this book
THE SCOURGE OF SCAPA FLOW
New York Times –bestselling author Gerald A. Browne’s suspenseful disaster novel about a massive mudslide along California’s southern coast The people of Southern California worship the sun, but their idol has forsaken them. For more than two weeks, rain has fallen on this earthly paradise, destroying crops, loosening the ground, and sending coffins into backyards, forcing rattlesnakes out of their nests into people’s homes. As the punishing weather continues, people start to panic. After all, a little rain never hurt anybody—but a lot can kill. The Seaside Supermarket near Laguna Beach is doing brisk business when an earthquake hits and the ground begins to slide. Among the customers are architect Frank Brydon, who is dying of cancer; a hotshot Hollywood producer; and a young couple on a road trip that’s supposed to save their relationship. As the earth shifts, the store slips down the hill face, coming to rest under a mountain of mud. With his knowledge of structural engineering, can Brydon lead the survivors in a desperate race against the clock to escape being buried alive?
Mass Market Paperback
First published April 1, 1976
12 people are currently reading
62 people want to read
About the author
J. Farragut Jones
9 booksPseudonym of Len Levinson; Aka = John Mackie, Gordon Davis; ** Has Ghost Written as; Clay Dawson.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
August 9, 2011
I was lucky enough to discover this author on the sale table a few years ago because his excellent books are unfortunately out of print. This one was over 30 years old when I picked it up, and aside from a few dated pop culture references and a lack of cell phones, the story was timeless.
The driving force behind this story is: what happens in a culture of sun worshippers when the sun goes away? The book begins with a slew of Californians going about the business of their lives during an unusual rainy spell. For two straight weeks, it has not stopped raining. Crime and domestic violence are up, and people are resorting to extraordinary means to deal with the relentless downpour. But, not only tempers are fraying. The delicate balance of nature is disturbed as the soaked topsoil gets heavier and heavier, and less and less stable.
Several people make a stop one day at the Seaside Supermarket, a spacious grocery store with an unusually high ceiling perched on a cliff overlooking the Pacific. There is the pair of secret lesbian lovers who nip in for some things to throw on the table quick when they get home in order to dupe their husbands and children into thinking they were home all day instead of shacked up in a hotel room. There is the ego-maniacal producer and his beautiful, masochistic girlfriend who stop for Perrier; the architect/cancer patient who stops for Mexican beer on the way home from one of his radical treatments; the deranged youth on a deadly mission; the woman cheating time with illegal treatments to make her look and feel years younger who takes a casual walk to the store to buy a few things; the successful insurance salesman who stops to buy coconut chips for his nagging wife; the troubled young couple on an aimless road trip to Mexico who stop for an inexpensive snack; and the girl who’s dating the store box boy, Spider. In addition, the store manager is on duty, guarding almost two-hundred thousand dollars and dealing with a snack food salesman.
No one notices the small crack that forms between the highway and the supermarket parking lot, so it’s a shock when a section of the cliff bearing the store and a portion of the parking lot breaks away and falls toward the sea. About half the inhabitants are killed in the fall, and the others are just about to be rescued when further tragedy strikes. Taking million dollar homes with it, a huge mudslide rages down the hillside above, all but burying the Seaside Supermarket and its inhabitants in mud. Only fourteen people manage to climb to the top of the islands of shelves in the store and escape the mud, and nobody on the outside knows they’re still alive. This is a disaster story, reminiscent of “The Poseidon Adventure” or even the more recent publication, “The Ruins,” wherein a small group of people are caught in a life threatening situation with seemingly no hope of survival. Escape or rescue seem impossible, and the survivors of the mudslide start to show what they’re made of, from the depths of weakness to the heights of strength and ingenuity. Somehow, Browne turns several hours of waiting for rescue into an adventure, as some of the survivors succumb to the mud in varying ways, and a cop and his buddy on the outside work on a plan of rescue that seems impossible. The burning question is not only who will make it, but if anyone will make it at all.
A slight departure from other Gerald A. Browne books I’ve read, this one is no less compelling. Though you’ll have to find a used one, I recommend this book or anything else you can find by this author.
The driving force behind this story is: what happens in a culture of sun worshippers when the sun goes away? The book begins with a slew of Californians going about the business of their lives during an unusual rainy spell. For two straight weeks, it has not stopped raining. Crime and domestic violence are up, and people are resorting to extraordinary means to deal with the relentless downpour. But, not only tempers are fraying. The delicate balance of nature is disturbed as the soaked topsoil gets heavier and heavier, and less and less stable.
Several people make a stop one day at the Seaside Supermarket, a spacious grocery store with an unusually high ceiling perched on a cliff overlooking the Pacific. There is the pair of secret lesbian lovers who nip in for some things to throw on the table quick when they get home in order to dupe their husbands and children into thinking they were home all day instead of shacked up in a hotel room. There is the ego-maniacal producer and his beautiful, masochistic girlfriend who stop for Perrier; the architect/cancer patient who stops for Mexican beer on the way home from one of his radical treatments; the deranged youth on a deadly mission; the woman cheating time with illegal treatments to make her look and feel years younger who takes a casual walk to the store to buy a few things; the successful insurance salesman who stops to buy coconut chips for his nagging wife; the troubled young couple on an aimless road trip to Mexico who stop for an inexpensive snack; and the girl who’s dating the store box boy, Spider. In addition, the store manager is on duty, guarding almost two-hundred thousand dollars and dealing with a snack food salesman.
No one notices the small crack that forms between the highway and the supermarket parking lot, so it’s a shock when a section of the cliff bearing the store and a portion of the parking lot breaks away and falls toward the sea. About half the inhabitants are killed in the fall, and the others are just about to be rescued when further tragedy strikes. Taking million dollar homes with it, a huge mudslide rages down the hillside above, all but burying the Seaside Supermarket and its inhabitants in mud. Only fourteen people manage to climb to the top of the islands of shelves in the store and escape the mud, and nobody on the outside knows they’re still alive. This is a disaster story, reminiscent of “The Poseidon Adventure” or even the more recent publication, “The Ruins,” wherein a small group of people are caught in a life threatening situation with seemingly no hope of survival. Escape or rescue seem impossible, and the survivors of the mudslide start to show what they’re made of, from the depths of weakness to the heights of strength and ingenuity. Somehow, Browne turns several hours of waiting for rescue into an adventure, as some of the survivors succumb to the mud in varying ways, and a cop and his buddy on the outside work on a plan of rescue that seems impossible. The burning question is not only who will make it, but if anyone will make it at all.
A slight departure from other Gerald A. Browne books I’ve read, this one is no less compelling. Though you’ll have to find a used one, I recommend this book or anything else you can find by this author.
March 1, 2025
Visit JetBlackDragonfly (The Man Who Read Too Much) at www.edenthompson.ca/blog
featuring a clean image of the cover art.
Slide is a disaster novel by the author of 11 Harrowhouse (an ingenious diamond heist novel). Several of his titles have been made into movies, and this would be perfect.
After 14 days of solid rain in Southern California, the air sizzles with bleak energy. Paranoia is high as the government does nothing with the climatologists' warnings.
But, you came here for disaster on the scale of The Towering Inferno and The Poseidon Adventure, so we are introduced to a cast of characters, a few pages on each to help the reader care when disaster strikes.
Frank Brydon, 42 and dying of cancer; housewives Judith and Marion, having a secret love affair; a disgruntled youth with a gun obsession; a Hollywood producer and his movie star wife; a plastic surgery addict and her stud lover; a young Armenian couple expecting a baby; the grocery store manager and a product salesman; an ex-con on parole; and several other ancillary characters buying groceries at the same time.
SEASIDE is a large supermarket perched on the hills overlooking the Coast Highway, and one of the first to use UPC bar code scanners (interesting for 1977). No one noticed the first crack appear before the hillside buckled, toppling the building down nine stories. Water pipes burst and transformers blew, electrocuting many of the 200 shoppers. Food fell off the shelves and was buried. Blackout.
People on the highway watched the Fire and Police crews mount a rescue from the store roof, ignoring warning signs the ground was tilting. Suddenly, a massive mudslide tears it all away. Everyone presumed dead, clean up will take months, no one aware there are survivors trapped in the building as mud rushes in, rising by the hour. They must stay on the safety of the checkout islands and, like in Poseidon, find a way climb upwards to exit.
I thought this was a terrifc thriller. The group bands together, each trying their best before randomly getting sucked into the rising mudslide. They all hope for a future, but in the tradition of disaster stories just a few survive.
My story of Slide goes back 48 years - when I was eleven, and disaster films were popular. I still love them all. I remember seeing this novel in stores and was enamoured of the cover art. A California landslide was just what I wanted. Somehow, it has stayed in my mind all these years, so to find a copy now was a thrill. I am happy to say this has all the action and cheese you would expect from the late 70s.
featuring a clean image of the cover art.
Slide is a disaster novel by the author of 11 Harrowhouse (an ingenious diamond heist novel). Several of his titles have been made into movies, and this would be perfect.
After 14 days of solid rain in Southern California, the air sizzles with bleak energy. Paranoia is high as the government does nothing with the climatologists' warnings.
But, you came here for disaster on the scale of The Towering Inferno and The Poseidon Adventure, so we are introduced to a cast of characters, a few pages on each to help the reader care when disaster strikes.
Frank Brydon, 42 and dying of cancer; housewives Judith and Marion, having a secret love affair; a disgruntled youth with a gun obsession; a Hollywood producer and his movie star wife; a plastic surgery addict and her stud lover; a young Armenian couple expecting a baby; the grocery store manager and a product salesman; an ex-con on parole; and several other ancillary characters buying groceries at the same time.
SEASIDE is a large supermarket perched on the hills overlooking the Coast Highway, and one of the first to use UPC bar code scanners (interesting for 1977). No one noticed the first crack appear before the hillside buckled, toppling the building down nine stories. Water pipes burst and transformers blew, electrocuting many of the 200 shoppers. Food fell off the shelves and was buried. Blackout.
People on the highway watched the Fire and Police crews mount a rescue from the store roof, ignoring warning signs the ground was tilting. Suddenly, a massive mudslide tears it all away. Everyone presumed dead, clean up will take months, no one aware there are survivors trapped in the building as mud rushes in, rising by the hour. They must stay on the safety of the checkout islands and, like in Poseidon, find a way climb upwards to exit.
I thought this was a terrifc thriller. The group bands together, each trying their best before randomly getting sucked into the rising mudslide. They all hope for a future, but in the tradition of disaster stories just a few survive.
My story of Slide goes back 48 years - when I was eleven, and disaster films were popular. I still love them all. I remember seeing this novel in stores and was enamoured of the cover art. A California landslide was just what I wanted. Somehow, it has stayed in my mind all these years, so to find a copy now was a thrill. I am happy to say this has all the action and cheese you would expect from the late 70s.
September 8, 2018
I had mixed feelings about this book. It started out precariously slow and I kept thinking to myself, when is this going to pick up? Then it did and I couldn't put it down. I stayed up late on a work night to finish it because I couldn't wait to see what the outcome was. However, I was slightly disappointed with how it ended. I wish it would have delved in a little deeper but maybe that is out job to do after we finish the book. To think about what and determine certain things on our own accord.
June 21, 2021
I read this book as a kid. Will Roland Emmerich please make a big budget, huge special effects movie of it -- please?
June 16, 2010
I bought this book from a bookseller on Amazon because it is out of print. I used to love Gerald A. Browne in the 70s/80s and this book is very readable and interesting.
This is a short book or long short story. This book was written in 1976 but it could take place now except for the fact that there are no cellphone, iphones, ipads,voice mail or even answering machines mentioned in the book. The author talks about a woman dragging her phone with the coiled cord out to her pool so that she won't miss any calls. If Browne had these features in this mini novel it would be listed under the genre si-fi.
Basically it's about the people who live and die while shopping at the seashore grocery shop at the top of Laguna Canyon, California. Although I have never been in a mudslide thank God while living in that area I know that the mudslides were horrific! If you can get your hands on a copy the book is well reading.
This is a short book or long short story. This book was written in 1976 but it could take place now except for the fact that there are no cellphone, iphones, ipads,voice mail or even answering machines mentioned in the book. The author talks about a woman dragging her phone with the coiled cord out to her pool so that she won't miss any calls. If Browne had these features in this mini novel it would be listed under the genre si-fi.
Basically it's about the people who live and die while shopping at the seashore grocery shop at the top of Laguna Canyon, California. Although I have never been in a mudslide thank God while living in that area I know that the mudslides were horrific! If you can get your hands on a copy the book is well reading.
July 23, 2014
I am a fan of Gerald Browne's work, but this is not one of his better efforts. There were incongruities in the story, and the ending was abrupt. If this is the first Gerald Browne you have read, don't give up on him. Check out Hot Siberian, Stone 588, or 18mm Blue.
August 9, 2016
Another thriller from Browne...this time he tackles the aftermath of an earthquake and mudslides particularly in regards to those trapped in a supermarket. Who, if any, will escape the rising mud that kills without remorse?
March 21, 2012
Compared to the other titles by the author that I've read, this is disappointing. Since Mr. Browne also did work in films I wondered if this was originally a screenplay for a disaster move.
May 21, 2013
I stopped reading after the slide. I read before bed and I knew it would give me bad dreams, so I stopped. I did like the way the characters were set up to be in the store.
Read
April 2, 2014I got sidetracked and did not finish.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews