Title: Plodding Book, Watch the Film
Review: I have to agree with previous posters on this book; the movie adaptation of this novel is much better than the novel itself. The movie was evenly paced, tense, suspenseful, and had its share of memorable characters. The book lacked all these qualities. It's hard to feel sympathetic for an alcoholic policeman who, despite being from the rough streets of the big city, is unable to spot corruption and mob involvement despite its obvious presence. In fact, the entire mob subplot (as well as the short lived affair subplot) seemed completely superfluous to me. Halfway through the novel I thought Benchley might be suggesting the shark was a hitman of some sort. I have heard that Peter Benchley once said, "It took me 15 years to discover I had no talent for writing, but I couldn't give up because by that time I was too famous." I don't know what took him so long to discover his problem, it only took me 15 pages.
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