Although this baffling novel is written by a diver, I soon started to wonder where the promised diving content was. Only after the first 100 or so pages does the central character, accident-prone TV game-show host Jack Todd, suddenly decide to take his girlfriend to a luxury resort on a Brazilian island, to wed and sample the underwater scene.
Unlike the average diver, Todd has the benefit of a magic ring that effectively allows him to turn back time if things go wrong - as things naturally do, when he gets greedy for the inevitable gold on a wreck attended by ravening sharks. There isn't much more diving following this savagely tragic episode.
Hag Hughes writes well, but the content of this book I can describe only as random.
The warning in his preface that the style is based on some arcane theory about personal operating modes really didn't help.
Everything is described in exhaustive detail, whether it's relevant to the plot or not. And in the end it's an uncomfortable experience, watching someone try so hard to be every best-selling author from Nick Hornby to Dan Brown.
Steve Weinman
Pen Press
ISBN: 9781907172038
Softback, 392pp, £8.99
