Silent Came the Monster

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water...

"Sharks are as timid as rabbits." So says a superintendent of the Coast Guard, dismissing the possibility that a shark could be the culprit in an unprecedented fatal attack on a swimmer at the Jersey Shore.

It's July 1916, a time when little is known about ocean creatures, and swimming in the sea is a relatively new pastime. Americans up and down the East Coast are shocked and mystified by the swimmer's death. Little do they know that this is only the beginning."

Having been born by the sea and spending my first thirty years living by it, I have always been fascinated by what lies beneath that often glassy surface. Add to that watching the eponymous film Jaws at a very young age, and you can imagine, my eyes lit up when I saw that there was a possibility of reading an ARC of Amy Hill Hearth's first-ever historical thriller, Silent Came the Monster, on NetGalley. After submitting my request, I checked my emails constantly in the hope I would be selected, and then the confirmation came through, and my life was made!

I flew through this book at a rate of knots as I could not put it down. In the opening chapter, it's 1880, and the captain of a 19ft catboat (named so by fishermen having to shoo cats from the boat that were after the dead fish) and his greenhorn deckhand are being stalked by something in the water...

"The deckhand saw it first. Sweet Jesus, what is that? he asked himself. Before he could get a good look, the creature dove beneath the surface." 

From this opening chapter, the story jumps forward to the first of July 1916 and the start of Independence Day celebrations, which means only one thing for the small beachside community of Beach Haven...tourists. And for the shark...potential luncheon. It is at this early point in the story we meet the main protagonist Dr. Edwin Halsey, a surgeon called out on an emergency visit to the Engleside Hotel in Beach Haven. His patient? The victim of what appears to be a shark attack.

 With the war ongoing in Europe, an outbreak of Polio, and more victims of this mysterious monster piling up, Dr. Halsey must fight to convince the locals that this is not a monster, a German submarine, or "The Beast" that the local fisherman have come to call it, but a living and very real thing. A thing that has the power to remind them all that no matter how in control they think they are, nature inevitably plays by its own rules...

This is not just a story about the horrific attacks that took the lives of four people in the twelve days that the shark roamed the shores; it is a story of courage, hope, grief, and resilience in the face of adversity. The characters are all beautifully written and have a tremendous depth that adds so much emotion to the story. And also, this book is peppered with beautiful snippets of local history, which, for any history buff, makes this book all the more difficult to put down! Reading this book has opened my eyes to so much more than just the shark attacks of 1916; I will also be looking to learn more about the Lenape people who inhabited that area for thousands of years before the colonists arrived as well as other facts that arose.

A huge thank you to Amy for putting your heart and soul into this book. Your knowledge of history shines through your writing, and it was a privilege to get to read it. And to NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for sending me an ARC and making this bookworm's life. Thank you.

Thoroughly enjoyed this fictionalized telling of the 1916 Jersey Shore shark attacks. Having spent many days in my youth at “the shore” this was an amazing story.

Silent Came the Monster is a scary good novel about the shark attacks at the Jersey Shore during the summer of 1916. Over the course of twelve days in July of that year, four people were killed and a fifth was seriously injured. At the time, the attacks were attributed to a sea monster. But later, it would be discovered that the attacks were from a massive shark measuring thirteen feet, three inches. Weighing in at one thousand, four hundred pounds.

Author Hearth has done an excellent job at crafting a novel full of drama and emotion. From the descriptions of the victims’ injuries and shark behavior, it is evident that a lot of background research was conducted.

There are a number of intense action scenes and they are probably not for the faint at heart. But, that’s what made the story come to life.

I thoroughly enjoyed Silent Came the Monster and author Hearth is now one of my favorite historical fiction authors out there. Five outstanding stars.

I received a digital ARC from Blackstone Publishing through NetGalley. The review herein is completely my own and contains my honest thoughts and opinions.