Infested Waters

by John Sammon

In the beautiful British Virgin Islands, something is attacking and killing swimmers in the crystal clear 82-degree waters. Jack Brendan, an American scientist and a specialist in invertebrates, is called by the British Government to investigate. He discovers a malevolent presence, a monster that is amphibious, that will attack and devour its victims in the sea or on land, and suck out the organs of its victims. But is it a Pentopod, an arachnid, or a mutant combination of both?
Infested Waters is a story of high adventure and underwater exploration in a tropical Caribbean paradise threatened by beasts created by the damaging impacts of ocean pollution.

166 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 7, 2022

About the author

John W. Sammon is a versatile author, freelance writer, actor and (former) newspaper reporter who has written 42 books across a wide variety of fiction and non-fiction genres.
His writing styles and roles cover several areas:
Creature Horror novels:
His newest novel The Parasitoid Horror about a swarm of DNA-mutated giant wasps that kill human victims and use their bodies as birth incubators was released on September 7. It is the third in a series of adventures involving deadly beasts, exotic locales, romance and a hero marine biologist who in his job must scuba dive and is terrified to do so.
The second of these three creature horror books, Infested Waters, got this response from a reader.
“This is a truly great book.”
His other books include:
Historical Fiction and Westerns: He writes gritty frontier tales and historical adventure novels, including works focused on the American West like The Donner Party: Whispered Pleadings In The Wind Swept Snow.
Non-Fiction and Journalism: He has worked as a newspaper reporter and freelance journalist covering community news, historical tragedies, and deep-dive human interest profiles.
Political Commentary: He writes opinion columns and political punditry pieces on current events.
Comedy and Humor: He produces lighthearted humor and comedy writing alongside his serious historical work
Screenplays: He writes scripts for film and media projects, drawing on his background as a Screen Actors Guild (SAG) actor and film narrator.
Films and television:
He has been an actor appearing in the films including the sci fi movies Deathsport (1978), It lives Again (1978), One from the Heart (1981) a musical romantic drama directed by Francis Ford Coppola, and also playing a thug on the television series General Hospital. He has narrated historical documentary films.

Reviews

[Peter Topside]

This was a fun book. As I recently stated with Hunter Shea's Fury of the Orcas, I love when authors try out new concepts for horror on the high seas. The creatures here were a nice combination of reality mixed with fiction, with a splash of science in there, too. Although, I'm still a little unclear as to how they developed, I think the idea here was from pollutants and such modifying the organisms, leading to this hybrid monster. Brenda and Brendan (That got a little confusing in the beginning) had a very interesting dynamic, with most of their relationship revolving around the woman being subservient to the man. They had several nasty verbal altercations, all ending with heated lovemaking sessions that felt out of place. And she just seemed to be there to keep Brendan supported, but I didn't find her to be much more than that. But the progression of the story was good and enjoyable. However, I didn't care for the ending, which was very breezed over somehow. The creatures were aplenty throughout the entirety of the book, but then we got a mention of a queen underwater somewhere, but never got to see it. You'd assume that there would be some big, epic conclusion here, but there wasn't anything. And then it briefly mentions the aftereffects of the story on the surrounding area, leading to a final chapter with an open ending. So nothing felt like it got proper closure. I did like the style of writing here, as well as the concept itself, but it needed to be fleshed out a lot more, plot, characters, and all, in order to be a more palatable experience.

[Lottie]

A great book to read, full of suspense!

[MIKE OKELLEY]

Scary as hell because this shit could really happen ending seemed to be lead in to next book.

[Boomer]

My guilty pleasure in book genres is creature features, especially those set in the ocean, so I'm always willing to give books like Infested Waters a try. The one positive thing I can say is that it's a cool idea for a story - giant sea spiders that can come on land and suck out their victim's internal organs? You've got my attention.

Unfortunately that's about all this book has going for it. It's written in a very awkward way with some awful dialogue ("run, I'm being killed!" screams a victim as a spider drags him into the ocean) and some very out of place sex scenes with the main character and his girlfriend that read terribly. There's plot holes left and right throughout the story and the book just ends with no explanation of anything. At only 162 pages I wasn't expecting much but this was still disappointing.

[wayne peters]

Review of this book.

A really great book! It was interesting and. informative. I learned a lot and enjoyed the book. A win, win in my estimation. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who.likes this genre.

[Allison]

excellent

This book kept me engaged and wanting to know what would happen next! Makes me never want to go swimming in the ocean.The end was….ahhhh, oh no!