{"id":8277,"date":"2021-02-06T17:35:22","date_gmt":"2021-02-06T21:35:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/?p=8277"},"modified":"2021-02-06T17:35:22","modified_gmt":"2021-02-06T21:35:22","slug":"book-review-neptunes-reckoning-by-robert-j-stava","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/book-review-neptunes-reckoning-by-robert-j-stava\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: Neptune’s Reckoning by Robert J. Stava"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Cover<\/a><\/p>\n

( Amazon.com<\/a> )<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Neptune’s Reckoning: A Montauk Horror Story, <\/em>by Robert J. Stava<\/p>\n

Severed Press, 2020<\/p>\n

ISBN: 9781922323644<\/p>\n

Available: paperback, Kindle<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Neptune’s Reckoning<\/em> is an undersea thriller to be reckoned with.\u00a0 It’s a sleek, well-designed craft that cuts through the competition, hitting all the right peaks.\u00a0 File this book in the category of “Books that should have been nominated for a Stoker Award”.\u00a0 Peter Benchley will always be the master of ocean-themed horror, but author Stava comes pretty close to matching him with this book.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Reclusive historian William Vanek spends his days at home on Long Island, researching shipwrecks and naval history of little significance.\u00a0 An old friend of his from Navy intelligence recruits Vanek, along with extreme photographer Danielle “Dan” Cheung and shipwreck specialist Arnaud Navarre, to look into the recent discovery of a missing World War II destroyer, the USS Exeter.<\/em>\u00a0 The story rolls out at a pace as smooth as glass, as the three of them are drawn into a web of mysterious killings at sea and government cover-ups.\u00a0 The mystery deepens, as it becomes clear the destroyer was involved in some dangerous, high level research before it sank.\u00a0 It’s up to the three of them to discover the truth about the Exeter<\/em>, and put a stop to who (or what) is responsible for killing boaters in the Montauk area.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Neptune’s Reckoning<\/em> is as good as it gets for a horror\/thriller novel.\u00a0 The pacing is perfect; it hits the bull’s-eye between breakneck speed and slow burn.\u00a0 There’s a secondary story thread involving toxic waste dumping near the Exeter<\/em> that adds another factor to the story, and is just as interesting as the primary story.\u00a0 All the secondary characters are critical to keeping the story flowing: they are drawn perfectly and enter and exit the narrative at just the right time.\u00a0 The eco-warriors and small-time criminals make excellent foils to the main story, and are as intriguing as the main characters.\u00a0 The book also does a nice job splitting the story settings between land and sea.\u00a0 Each section gets enough time, preventing the book from being one-dimensional.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It’s worth noting that if you haven’t seen Stranger Things<\/em>, doing a bit of spot research on Camp Hero, Montauk, NY, and the conspiracy theories around them helps to lend a greater understanding of the book’s background.\u00a0 The stories behind Montauk are not critical to following the book, but it does help.\u00a0 There’s also a nice touch of sci-fi involving the entity inhabiting the waters around Montauk.\u00a0 It isn’t just a shark or oversized squid tearing its victims to shreds, it is much more mysterious-and deadly.\u00a0 The reader won’t get a total explanation for everything that happens at the end of the book, and that may be a bit frustrating for readers who prefer every plot thread to be explained in full.\u00a0\u00a0 Everyone else will love the smooth sailing that is Neptune’s Reckoning.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This is one you can’t miss, and it should find a wide audience for horror and adventure readers alike.\u00a0 It’s also tailor-made for the silver screen; let’s see if Hollywood picks it up.\u00a0 Highly recommended.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Contains: violence, limited gore, profanity<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

( Amazon.com )   Neptune’s Reckoning: A Montauk Horror Story, by Robert J. Stava Severed Press, 2020 ISBN: 9781922323644 Available: paperback, Kindle   Neptune’s Reckoning is an undersea thriller to be reckoned with.\u00a0 It’s a sleek, well-designed craft that cuts through the competition, hitting all the right peaks.\u00a0 File this book in the category of<\/p>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2474,1133,4745,3752,2914,226,3502,2615],"class_list":["post-8277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-book-review","tag-killer-animals","tag-neptunes-reckoning","tag-ocean-horror","tag-robert-j-stava","tag-science-fiction","tag-thriller-fiction","tag-underwater-horror"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8277"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8277\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8281,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8277\/revisions\/8281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}