Jaws (Peter Benchley, 1974)

Wanting an easy read to take on holiday, I picked up Jaws, the novel that launched the movie, and by the second day in Portugal I'd finished it. A very easy read (perhaps not a good one for the beach!) the writing put me in mind of Stephen King, with the concentration on a small community (Amity), a malicious threat (shark) and the addition of some rather explicit and unnecessary sex scenes. 

Benchley's shark is a serious threat not just to lives but to the financial stability of the town, which is home to thousands of summer-vacationers every year, and so protagonist Chief Brody not only has to contend with a vicious killer but also with angry store owners who fear ruin if the beaches are closed. The threat to the community is just as interesting as the story of the shark and it's mindless pursuit of food, and I found it more exciting than the affair between Brody's wife and shark expert Hooper which takes up a good chunk of space in the middle of the book. The mysterious shark hunter, Quint, is also under written at the expense of the sordid liaison, and I'm not entirely sure what point the episode serves. Still, Jaws is a rip-roaring page-turner that held me gripped, for two days at least!