cover image WHITE SHARK

WHITE SHARK

, WHITE SHARKPeter Benchley

Despite the success of Jaws and its progeny, Benchley's 1994 water-themed thriller has never been filmed, perhaps because the challenge of creating the titular monster—not an actual shark this time but a seven-foot-tall aquatic humanoid with stainless steel teeth and claws—proved too daunting (or silly). This all works to the advantage of audio listeners, who can let their imaginations run rampant as they listen to Collins's intelligent, multi-faceted reading of a particularly sprightly abridgement approved by the author. Collins catches the terror right from the 1945 prologue, as an escaping Nazi genetic scientist and his horrifying brainchild are sent to watery grave along with a U-boat and its crew. When a team of divers accidentally stumble on the sunken sub 50 years later, Collins brings to vivid life a team of American marine biologists who wonder just what kind of a monster is suddenly wreaking havoc among the fish and people who get in its way. Based on the Random House hardcover. (On sale June 25)