Deeper

by James A. Moore

Golden Cove today appears to be a charming New England seacoast town. But there are dark stories from decades past—when the town had a different name. Captain Joe Bierden’s heard them all—tall tales to entertain the tourists, he thinks. He doesn’t hesitate to hire his boat out to a research team eager to begin a month-long diving expedition.
  
So no one is more surprised than Captain Joe with the—thing—that the team finds in an offshore underwater cave. Their first mistake is in bringing it ashore. Their second is believing it can't survive on land.
 
Their third is thinking that it’s the only one of its kind…

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Thriller, Science Fiction, Lovecraftian, Weird Fiction, Horror Thriller

288 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.

James A. Moore was the award winning author of over forty novels, thrillers, dark fantasy and horror alike, including the critically acclaimed Fireworks, Under The Overtree, Blood Red, the Serenity Falls trilogy (featuring his recurring anti-hero, Jonathan Crowley) and his most recent novels, seven Forges, The Blasted Lands, City of Wonders , The Silent Army and the forthcoming The Gates of The Dead (Book Three in the Tides of War Series) and A Hell Within, co-authored with Charles R. Rutledge.

Reviews

[Kimberly · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the first book that introduced me to the author James Moore. I have it clearly listed as a "favorite" (as are most of the books I've since read by him :) ), but just realized that I never reviewed it.

Right off the bat, Mr. Moore's writing style just "clicked" with me. This was so skillfully written--so "in character" that I felt as if I were physically watching these events unfold before me. Certain authors are able to to that, and James Moore is one of the top ones, as far as I'm concerned. First of all, his characterization was 5 star! The language used, emotions portrayed, everything down to the minute details of everyday living struck me as being so accurate. When you have characterization that makes the readers BELIEVE that who they are reading about are real people, you have a great story right there.

The second thing worth mentioning is his use of atmosphere. The town, details of life on a shipping boat, even the reticent villagers, brought this story to an even more intense level of believability. The storyline, itself, absolutely spellbinding.

I can not give high enough praise for the writing in this book--I only hope that someday we see the release of a sequel....or at least a return to some of the characters.

Highest recommendation!

[WendyB · Rating 4 out of 5]

Started out a little stronger than it finished but I liked it.

[Jason Golomb · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'd read some really positive reviews of this novel, both from Amazon and elsewhere, and I thought it would make for a fun and light Lovecraftian horror/thriller. It was light, and there's no denying author James Moore's connection to the Lovecraft collective mythos, but it just wasn't a good novel.

The characters were flat, the story was bland and predictable, and there was no pull of the reader into the grander vision of what makes Lovecraft-style stories so (capital G) "Grand".

This would be fine if you're looking for an inexpensive, quick 2-3 day read, with monsters, some mystery and a connective tissue to the world of H.P. The plot flows quickly enough and the writing is capable. I'm extremely respectful and envious of the craft of writing, but potential readers of this work should beware.

[James Seger · Rating 1 out of 5]

Deeper sounded like just my kind of horror story. A captain is hired at the end of the season to take a professor and his students on a thirty day trip to explore some underwater caves. Deeper is James A. Moore’s sequel to H.P. Lovecraft’s The Shadow Over Innsmouth. Surely that’s a goldmine for a horror story.

Unfortunately, the author just doesn’t do much with it. The book is poorly written. He constantly tells what is happening, but he never shows what is happening. As a result, the book never seemed to connect with me.

The book is narrated by a New England sea captain, yet he was never given a distinctive voice. There were no 'little details' or real nautical slang that would have shown me that the author did his homework and would have made the captain a believable character. An entire novel where the captain never says 'port', 'starboard', 'berth' or 'head'? He never sounded like a captain or for that matter, even a New Englander. All of the characters really were pretty flat, two dimensional and interchangeable.

The biggest sin of the book though is that it just isn't scary. If Mr. Moore is going to write a Lovecraft inspired story he should also learn to carry off some Lovecraft-style cosmic dread. Nobody in this story seemed to understand that they were in a horror story. At one point, the crew have an encounter with a fish-man. Yet nobody seemed to be particularly freaked out by it. There was none of the awe and wonder that you would expect at the discovery of another sentient humanoid race. No fear, terror or looming madness. Nothing.

At 270 pages, this was a fairly short book, but I felt no connection to the characters or any spark to the events of the story. For such a short book, it really felt like a slog. Ultimately the biggest problem with Deeper is that it just lacked depth.

[Edward H. Busse, III · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun read by Mr. Moore. I liked the main character very much and the other characters were well developed and believable. The main "villain"…or "villains" I should say…were very unpleasant and that was a good thing. The book was well written - no gaps in the story, the action was believable, etc. The style of Mr. Moore's writing really put me in the action and I could smell the smells, envision the boats and "villains" and feel the environment. OVERALL/BOTTOM LINE: a fun book that you can enjoy.

[Paul Hollis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Deeper is a entertaining blend of ghost story and Lovecraftian monsters from the deep. Moore does everything right with this one: great depth of character; great set up; it's tightly written and has some genuiely scary chills.

[Dark Recesses]

DEEPER
By James Moore
Necessary Evil Press
Reviewed by Nickolas Cook

The Cthulhu Mythos have come a long way since Lovecraft's day. We genre fans have seen them pass through the testosterone fueled pages of Robert E. Howard, passed off to a man who crept up on them, ever quiet and horrific, Ramsey Campbell, and then to Brian Lumley, a writer who's added so much depth to them that he's almost recreated Lovecraft's world of shadowy hidden interdimensional monster gods.
And now along comes the talented and prolific James Moore to catch us up on what ever happened to that dreaded and fishy town of Innsmouth.
Captain Joe Bierdan has the misfortune to contract out his boat to a team of scientists who want to investigate the strange happenings off the coast of Golden Cove, Massachusetts. Along with his shipmate, Charlie, a rugged womanizer, and a variety of characters intent on finding the truth of Golden Cove's horrifying past, they set sail for a month of frolicking in its fog bound waters. What they find beneath the cove’s icy waves will be pretty easy to guess for any fan of Lovecraft's classic stories. But as is usual with Moore, the story moves along at a good clip and is full of interesting twists.
Writing in first person is always a risky venture for a horror author. You know the protagonist is never in any real danger or else there'd be no one to tell the story. So, on a fundamental level, the suspense in DEEPER has been deferred, somewhat, for a darn good story. Joe lives, okay? But it's the hell he survives that makes this worth the read.
With a firm grasp of the craft, Moore gathers Lovecraft's legacy into his capable hands and makes it his own by adding a few new touches to the Innsmouth cycle- including a genius turn at giving the man-fish creatures the ability to communicate through images and sensations. There is tension aplenty within the plot between Joe and his immature shipmate, a zealous scientist, and a pair of television parapsychologist out to prove the cove haunted by more than Lovecraft's fishy men. The diving research is solid; the descriptive passages will freeze you to the bone; and the end will grab you by the throat. Moore manages to even inject of a bit of action movie esthetic into DEEPER, something that no other Lovecraft story has been able to do since Lumley's first Titus Crow adventures.
As with all of Moore's works, the story is all about the characters and how they react to their situation. Even in a shared world such as this, he goes a long way in making up for Lovecraft's total lack of regard for living, breathing characters.
All in all, this is a welcome addition to the Cthulhu Mythos…hopefully not James Moore's only venture into them.


--Nickolas Cook.

[William M. · Rating 3 out of 5]

James A. Moore's previous outings, such as "Fireworks" and "Possessions", left me disappointed with his writing. I was about to stop reading his work until I stumbled upon his book "Blood Red", which I quite enjoyed. And while I don't think "Deeper" was nearly as good as "Blood Red", it is certainly worth reading. I'm a sucker for tales involving water and the deep unknown, and by having touches of the Lovecraft mythology, some likable characters, and a nice slow build with a creepy atmosphere, I was sold.

However, there were a few inconsistencies that bothered me. For instance, the fog was described as barely being able to see past one's face, yet a few paragraphs later a ship is spotted way in the distance. I also found that some of the sentences had awkward sentence structures, but perhaps that can be explained by the first person narrative. One thing that was hard to swallow was a photograph that was introduced of a beach attack by some sort of dark shapes that apparently killed dozens of people. Having that many people missing or killed in America would make it an instant national story and would never be so secretive. And the fact that Charlie recognized the hit man Buddy from back in the Navy was just way too much of a coincidence. I also didn't like the theories about the origins of the local police and didn't understand why the whole ghost angle was needed. It was almost as if two separate stories were fighting to be in one book.

Those problematic issues aside, "Deeper" was still an enjoyable read, but new fans should start with Moore's better work, "Blood Red". Unlike the very R-rated "Blood Red", "Deeper" has more of a PG-13 feel, but to Moore's credit, I didn't think it hurt the story too much, even in a horror novel. For me, Moore's work is usually hit or miss, but this time, it was more in the middle, so it earns a mild recommendation.

[DJMikeG · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ugh. Abandoned halfway through. This is an extremely boring retooling of H.P. Lovecraft's "The Shadow Over Innsmouth", with some ghosts thrown in with the fishmen. I was excited for this book. I like Moore's "Fireworks" and I was interested to see how he would handle Lovecraftian themes and New England based marine horror. Not very well. This is an extremely dull novel and I found that I couldn't read more than two pages at a time once I got halfway through. Abandoned.

[Bryan Worra · Rating 1 out of 5]

If you're going into this looking for a Lovecraft tale set in the modern age, you're going to be very disappointed, especially if you really love the atmospheric source material and the level of craft and looming horror Lovecraft sought to imbue to his tale.

If you're looking for a horror/ghost story with nods to H.P. Lovecraft, most specifically, the Shadow Over Innsmouth, then you might get a little more satisfaction from it. It's at least a fast read, but irritating, overall.

[Kurt Criscione · Rating 4 out of 5]

Moore takes a few pages from HPL and introduces us to the Horror of the Deep Ones and their ancient city off the New England coast.

[Ami Morrison · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this was a very fun little read.

[Dez Nemec · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surprisingly good!

[Andre Farant · Rating 4 out of 5]

I recently watched Dagon, a movie loosely based on H.P. Lovecraft's The Shadow Over Innsmouth. Unfortunately, despite being directed by Sturart Gordon (Re-Animator), Dagon proved deeply disappointing. I was hoping for a modern adaptation of Lovecraft's deep sea mythos, complete with an intriguing premise, interesting characters, and grotesque special effects. Instead, I got a tired pastiche peopled with flat, unlikeable characters and so-so effects. As the credits rolled, I felt unsatisfied and a little cheated.

Then I came across James A. Moore's Deeper in my local bookshop and got exactly what Gordon failed to produce.

Joe Bierden, a New England fisherman, hires out his yacht and services to a team of researchers. Backed by a platoon of grad students, the researchers wish to uncover the secrets hidden deep with the underwater caves just off the seacoast town of Golden Cove. But the researchers have secrets of their own, such as why their team includes a couple of ghost hunters and a disarmingly intense cryptozoologist.

Deeper is a perfect blend of Lovecraftian tropes and modern thriller. The inclusion of a scientific expedition and speculations on the nature of the evil hidden beneath the waves draws from the works such writers as Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, James Rollins and the late Michael Crichton, but the first person narrative and blue collar narrator ensure that Deeper retains its everyman roots and never dives too deeply into techno-thriller territory.

In fact, the narrator is worth highlighting. In Joe Bierden, Moore has created a likeable, friendly story teller and protagonist with a distinct yet wholly unobtrusive voice. There is no overwriting here, because a drinking buddy recounting a serious, intimate story does not overwrite—and that's essentially Joe’s role here.

And the special effects? Moore's descriptions are vague, ambiguous—that is to say, perfectly in keeping with Lovecraftian tradition, which only ensures that the reader's imagination does most of the heavy lifting and, well, are there any better special effects than those in an avid horror reader's mind? I would certainly hope not.

In short, with Deeper, Moore has given me everything I wished I'd gotten from Dagon. I only wish it had been available to Gordon when he was shopping for a screenplay. Maybe next time.

[Adam Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Please don't be discouraged by my three-star rating of Deeper by James A. Moore. This was a very fun bookin a lot of ways that I will explain, but first I will quickly

say that it didn't receive a higher rating from me because it really was nothing new to me. If you have read othernovels about exploring the ocean and finding some

crazy critters down there you have basically read Deeper, but that is like me saying if you have read one zombie novel you have read them all. The closest novel to this

one for me is Natural Selection by Dave Freedman. I will say though that despite Deeper adding a new coat of paint to something that didn't really need it, it does its

job of being fun and entertaining almost perfectly. The book is told in first-person and I loved Joe, our narrator. He is constantly asking us questions to make us see

things his way. "Ever been...? Ever seen...? Ever had...?" I loved this for some reason. The book made me feel as if I were listening to a man edging towards old age

telling me this story in a shack near the ocean through which the wind howls and where pellets of saltwater spray hits your face. (Think of the shack from Harry Potter

and the Sorcerer's/Philosopher's Stone to get the idea). The atmosphere is very well done but it is occasionally demolished by the dry humor of Joe's narration. Because

of this, the scenory was creepy, but the monsters themselves were almost comical, like a film where the background is realistic while the monsters resemble people

wearing cheap fish suits. So, the point I am making badly is that Deeper is a B-movie in book form. Absolutely nothing wrong with that. It was fun and I read it in less

than a day. I just wouldn't plan on being scared or being too blown away.

[Tarl · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked up this book thinking that it would be a wonderous book in relation to HP Lovecraft's work. I mean, it has Deep Ones in it, and Innsmoth. All in all, this looked promising.

What it turned out to be was a book that even now, months after reading, still leaves a bad taste in my literary mouth. Yes, Moore does a fairly good job with his characters. You love the ones you are supposed to, you hate the ones you aren't supposed to like, so he succeeds there. But the rest of the storytelling is terrible. It seems as if the plot was written on the fly with no forward thinking except for the ghosts.
Yes, ghosts.
Ghosts that serve NO PURPOSE until the ending in a glorious deus ex machina solution that leaves the reader feeling ripped off. (and this is right after another wonderful moment where the main character is suddenly able to arm themselves with a small army's worth of hardware just because 'oh, my wife's father is a ______' and suddenly out of no where it comes up so that I can get some deepone hunting gear that would make the Punisher jealous.)

My advice, skip this one. And if you are a Lovecraft fan, avoid it like the plague.
It's not a tribute, it's someone who's trying to (and fails) ride on HPL's coat tails so that he can get some money from this poorly written story.
In the end, successful horror writers, hell, any writer of any genre say time and time again, deus ex machina endings are only for poor writers with poor stories.
And that folks, is what we have here.

[Elliott · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm pretty good at determining a final ranking for a book within the first 50 pages. Page 21 did it for me.

"Solid wood construction is great on a calm day, but the people building those old rigs weren't always exactly craftsmen." Ahhh no. The Royal Navy built some pretty solid ships. Nelson's fleet survived a gale following Trafalgar where they had been heavily damaged before going against the weather. But, "All it would have taken was one rotting board." (21)
No. Shut up.
Three ships lost in one area in the age of sail is suspicious. These were not delicate little ships. People didn't go sailing across the ocean just on "nice" days before metal hulls. Weather was factored in.
The captain of a British ship going on shore to torture "fifteen of the healthiest men in town"? So, roll call for the 15 "healthiest" men in town to be tortured? No. That's not how things were done "in the times." (22)
So, confusing a man-of-war with a paper boat and misidentifying the late 18th century as the 14th century and the British as the Mongols tacked on to a ho-hum ripoff of a Lovecraft tale that forgets it was ALREADY a better Lovecraft tale?
No thanks.

[Mya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Undersea horrors with a little Lovecraft seasoning is what I got out of this novel. While I was looking for a good B-Creature Feature read, what I got was a little bit more. I say a little bit, because this tale focuses in on one man, a simple sailor who gets caught up in a web of danger that um...some folk would have seen coming a mile away. This is not a deep, introspective read and the main character is not the brightest bulb, yet, I still kinda felt for him. Sure taking a charter out to waters with notoriously bad rumors surrounding them, mysterious passengers keeping too many secrets and any aquatic life with close resemblances to humanoid structures are all bad ideas, but the main character is a hearty one, one of those New England types that brave the Goliath of the sea and laugh at its fury and bloodshed.

Okay so "Deeper" is a page-turning beach read and far different from anything I have read by Mr. Moore but it is still entertaining and packed with quality surprises and I did enjoy it.

[Randy Evans · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first book I've read by Mr. Moore and I knew from looking at the cover it was going to be a horror story. Now I like horror stories but like any other type of book it has to have a good plot and characters that seem real and likable which to my delight it did have. Like most readers I have a list of authors of which I read everything they write but as we all know those authors don't write near as fast as we read so like many when that time comes and we have to find a new author to add to the list sometimes picking one is based on the cover art. While I liked the cover I wasn't expecting a very good read under it. I was wrong so you really can't judge a book by it's cover. Many may be surprised by the story hidden under this cover.

[Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have to give this one a resounding "Meh." The author made a few serious errors (not adequately describing a key setting, for example). Also, if you are going to write a story that is essentially a sequel to Lovecraft's "The Shadow Over Innsmouth," you should be certain to place it in Massachusetts, not New Hampshire. I didn't like the whole ghost thing, either. There were some good gun fights with the Deep Ones, but overall, I was disappointed.

[Jordi Soriano-Fradera · Rating 2 out of 5]

This books follows somehow the events the described in Lovecraft's masterpiece 'The Shadow over Innsmouth', but in modern days, and the reader follows the adventures of a group of scientists and paranormal investigators that aim at exploring a system of vast underwater caves off a creepy town in New England.

I was hoping to find an interesting Lovecraftian horror novel. And although the premise is interesting, I found a very simplistic, poorly developed, predictable aquatic terror novel.

[Jaime · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is one of the poorest written books that I have read in the last 20 years. The writing style is poor and the structure is shoddy. Sadly, this monster book will not scare you to death but it may lull you into a coma. I can only recommend this as a sure-fire tranquilizer. Skip this and go to sleep.

[Paula · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this one might be a four star book because Moore does a great blend of monster/ghost/Lovecraft story, but the penultimate portion of the book was a bit too much like an action movie. I do plan to read some of his other books.

[Megan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Unfinished shelf!
Got through: 41 pages

Reading this was like watching one of those painful scenes in a movie where the main character turns and mugs cheesily at the camera-- if they spent the entire movie doing it.

[Matt Marx · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow this was a great book it threw in ghost horror with creature horror! it is a unique book.

[Lady_ Whistledown · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excelent book. Scary monsters, interesting characters, lots of action. It's a short book, but I couldn't put it down, and read it just a few nights.

[Tine-Schreibt · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's okay written, the story just didn't grip me.

[Joshua Hair · Rating 5 out of 5]

Man, what a fun read! I've read some of Mister Moore's work in the past and wasn't a huge fan, so I didn't anticipate enjoying this one nearly as much as I did. There's a lot more going on in this novel than I initially thought. Based on the title and cover I expected a deep dive exploration to uncover some kind of ancient monster. That's all correct, in a way, but what I didn't expect was the Lovecraftian twist. Of all his Elder Gods and Eldritch things my favorite has always been Dagon and the inhabitants of Innsmouth. Imagine my surprise when I realized that's where this novel takes place. Are you getting a better picture of just what our friends find on their underwater adventure?

So, yeah, I'll admit it: I was completely wrong in my assessment of James A. Moore. I had two strikes on him and was mentally ready to throw that fastball and send him to the benches, but he swung Deeper at me and hit a freakin' homerun. It's not perfect (his dialogue could use some work for sure) but it is a heck of a lot of fun to read and kept me entertained the whole way through.

[Seth Tucker · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good book that at no point, while reading the description on the back flap did it cover that it is a sequel to H.P. Lovecraft's Shadow Over Innsmouth. Not that this took anything away from the story, and I purchased the book ignorant of this fact, but I feel like it would be good to at least mention. A lot of the stuff that this book deals with is a scientific expedition researching Devil's Reef, and the fisherman that they've chartered to take them out for a month. Adding onto Lovecraft's work, this book deals with ghosts of sailors that the Deep Ones have sunk and murdered in the past as well as the price of bargaining with such entities. The action-packed ending I feel belies the horror of the book and turns it into a much more action themed ending with horror aesthetics than straight horror, but the book is a good read and I really enjoyed it.

[Jason Lucero · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was an awesome read. It is cringe worthy to think of what could possibly be in the depths. Thank you Sir. It is truly motivational to think of the shootout the two gents have with the opposition. Buddy is a badass. (Spoiler) Do not read further if you intend to read this one....


I liked the story and the heroes, but the ending was not cool. Sure the gilmen have something to fear now that they've been discovered but I really wanted the hero to get all suited up with Buddy (bill for tech footed by daddy warbucks) and eradicate those bastards for killing his wife. I've been keeping my eye for a sequel by Mr. Moore to no avail. Please sir, if anything you could do a short story of sweet revenge on the gilmen.