National Park Service Rangers Kathy West and Nathan Toland are the only ones stationed at Fort Jefferson, a restored Civil War fort sixty miles off Key West, Florida. Two overnight campers go missing, but before the rangers can investigate, shady Homeland Security agent Glen Larsson arrives to close the park due to a purportedly imminent red tide.
Things quickly escalate out of control when mercenaries arrive to back up Larsson and imprison the rangers. Larsson’s plan is to free a cast of giant crabs to overrun the park, and then Florida beyond.
It’s up to Kathy and Nathan to escape the fort, and then, with the help of an old Coast Guard vet and a scientist with inside knowledge of the plot, to save millions of innocents from rampaging giant crabs. But Larsson’s evil plan has been decades in the making, and the crabs seem indestructible. It will take courage, teamwork, and perhaps the ultimate sacrifice, to avert disaster.
Title: Claws | Author: Russell James | Publisher: Severed Press | Pub. Date: 2019-May-20 | Pages: 152 | ASIN: B07S1RDMCN | Triggers: None | Language: English | Rating: 4 out of 5 | Source: Received a copy from the author for review consideration.
Claws Review
I should have had a review out for this about a month ago, but I’m an idiot and forgot that even though I’d tweeted a brief review, I’d not actually written up the proper review. Oops. So, it’s been a while since I’ve read this, so the review is going to be kind of brief. My apologies.
The thing that stands out most for me about Claws isn’t actually the giant crabs. It’s one of the two protagonists. His name’s Nathan and he geeks out in a major way on history. He just seems like a guy that would be fun to nerd out with over multiple beers and pizza. Working at the fort is pretty much a dream for someone like him. Well, it would be, if, you know, it wasn’t for the giant freaking crabs. That can put a damper on things.
The other protagonist, Kate, was okay, but not nearly as lively-feeling as Nathan was.
This is a creature feature, but like most of them, there’s also a human bad-guy element involved. Be prepared to want to slap the royal fiddlesticks out of the jerks that fill the role in Claws. I pretty much instantly went straight to “Ok, I need to see you die horribly.”
The climactic scene involving everyone’s favorite tasty crustaceans is quite satisfactory, but overall the book falls just short of fulfilling it’s potential. I think I preferred James’ Cavern of the Damned to this one, albeit not by much.
Claws isn’t something to pick up if you’re looking for a serious scare or a meaty book, but if you’re looking for a fun creature-feature, you should definitely give it a try.
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Lilyn G is the founder of Sci-Fi & Scary, and leader of the Coolthulhu Crew. She does book and film reviews for both genres the site focuses on. Her tastes run towards creature features, hard science fiction, and lots and lots of action. She also has a soft spot for middle-grade fiction that rears its head frequently.
She is also a co-founder of Ladies of Horror Fiction, though she has stepped down to regular crew level.
Feel free to chat her up on Twitter as long as you aren’t hitting her up to review your book.
Ooh, I can’t wait to read this. Now I have two trusted people telling me that I’ll have fun!