The Deep

Fans of unflinching bleakness and all-out horror will love this novel. Expecting to assist in the study of a miraculous cell-regenerating substance discovered deep undersea, veterinarian Luke Nelson descends eight miles to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. What he finds there, in a research lab warped by incredible pressure and trapped in utter darkness, is a mounting wave of physical and mental aberrations. Something down there is testing—or playing with—the scientists and their lab animals. Readers watch as Luke is unpeeled, layer by layer, and reshaped into something terrible. The novel’s horror is notable both for quantity and quality. Where some writers shovel gruesome details into their fiction, Cutter (The Troop) uses a front-end loader. However, his sharp observations and choice of details keep readers from getting numbed by the accumulation of catastrophes; each new shock is freshly disturbing. Genre fans will find this an admirable addition to the list of horror novels that share its title. Agent: Kirby Kim, Janklow & Nesbit Associates. (Jan.)