What makes this book particularly interesting is the period detail: the mores, the social habits, life ( at least along the eastern seaboard among the fairly wealthy.) The author follows the shark as it meanders up the coast ( something that annoyed me was attribution of motivation to the shark, but a minor quibble) and the reactions from the local populace (the general feeling was that the attacks were the work of killer whales and that sharks did not attack people.)Shark attacks began to occur along the Jersey shore and then a child swimming and the man who dove in after him were killed by the same great white shark who had swum up the Matawan Creek (called a creek, but it had to be larger than what I usually think of as a creek) during high tide when partly salty ocean water moved inland. Not understanding anything about sharks, who have no flotation gall and sink when dead unlike most fish, the community was immediately aroused to attack with ever kind of imaginable firearm and multiple sticks of dynamite. To no avail.
John Nichols, an ichthyologist, was fascinated by the reports. Until this time most scientists believed that orcas, killer whales, were the man-eaters and sharks were relatively harmless. They were about to have their minds changed.
