'Night of the Crabs' – Guy N. Smith (Black Hill Books)

I know, I know but all my plans for my day off yesterday slowly turned into things that I absolutely had to get done which turned into a day off where I only had a couple of hours to curl up with a book. Time was of the essence and so I ended up picking up 'Night of the Crabs' on the basis that it's only a hundred and forty three pages long (I know I said it was a hundred and thirty something pages, the other day, but me and numbers have never particularly got on...), so I knew I'd finish it in one sitting, and because it will be a strange day indeed when a book about giant crabs doesn't entertain my simple needs ;o)

After this book, my Guy N. Smith reading will be slowing right down as I'm back to searching out cheap copies in old second-hand shops or online. 'Night of the Crabs' is a good one to bow out on then, It has it's issues but ended up being more fun than I thought it would be. You've never let me down giant crabs, please don't ever change.

The Welsh coast basks in summer tranquility. Then the 'drownings' begin. But not until monstrous crustaceans crawl ashore, their pincers poised for destruction, does the world understand the threat it faces. A seafood cocktail for the strongest stomachs...

There is something about a book where giant crabs pick up a tank and throw it in the sea that makes me a little more forgiving of its faults. Maybe ‘faults’ is the wrong word… ‘Night of the Crabs’ does the job that it was written for, to be an entertaining bit of fun that you can read over the course of a couple of hours on the beach and not be too concerned about going for a swim afterwards. Yeah, the tension isn’t at the level it needs to be in order to really grip the reader; you know the main characters will be fine and any supporting character with a bit of back story may as well be wearing a red shirt with ‘I’m About to Die’ written on it. Having said that though, there’s just enough to keep you reading; you know when a death is about to happen, and Smith draws it out just enough that there is some tension to proceedings, just not quite enough.

And just when I think I’ve got a handle on the casual sexism that Guy N. Smith brings out in his work… ‘Night of the Crabs’ happens along and tells its female lead to run along and amuse herself, while the hero talks to the Colonel, and makes it clear that this is no place for a woman. Why is Pat Benson in the book then? You know why and yes, they do.

Again, ‘Night of the Crabs’ is a beach read and, for a book first published in 1976, comes across as very much ‘of its time’. There’s a fine line between ‘of its time’ and ‘dated’ though and this book falls on the wrong side of that line more often than not.

But ‘Night of the Crabs’ is a book where giant crabs throw tanks into the sea and like I said, I can forgive a lot in a book if it also delivers scenes like these. And it does, ‘Night of the Crabs’ isn’t afraid to pitch the titular crabs against anything and the result is pretty much always full of action and gore, just what a book like this is supposed to deliver.

‘Night of the Crabs’ won’t change your life then but what it does do very well, despite it’s faults, is entertain its reader for a couple of hours. Sometimes, you can’t ask for a lot more than that.