Twelve Days of Terror: Shark Attacks in 1916 - Terror on the beach and in a creek

Shark attacks are one of the most scary horrors that people think of when they think of going into the water. The prospect of a perfect and unfeeling predator swimming silently to a person in the water, and biting large chunks of flesh, causing a death by horrific blood loss is bound to scare even the most courageous of people. The rattling off statistics that the number of deaths caused by shark attacks is mostly in the single digits worldwide and hence very unlikely to happen does not reduce the scare. Even now, the prospect of a shark in the waters can bring all the swimmers out of the water; although studies which show that sharks and people swimming side by side in the waters off Sydney show that sharks just don't attack people; there are some reasons why an attack would have happened.
But why this fear of sharks ? Why this unsettling feeling when there is even some news of a shark in the water ? A lot of people based it on a very popular movie called 'Jaws' (released in 1975, and based on a novel by Peter Benchley, published in 1974), which showed a small beach town terrorized by a great white shark and how people died in these attacks. The prospect of such a common pastime, going to the beach and swimming in the water, suddenly becoming so dangerous, stayed in the minds of people and caused the movie to become a major event (and a marked negative influence for the health of the many species of sharks). But the novel was not just fiction. It was based on attacks that took place in 1916, during the First World War, in the waters off New Jersey, where a great white shark not only killed people in the water off the coast, but even came inland in a creek and killed more people (for a total of 4 dead and one badly injured). These incidents have all been forgotten, if not for this book, whose author Richard Fernicola did extensive research on these attacks and describes these events in terrifying details.

Book: Twelve Days of Terror	Movie: 12 Days of Terror	Movie: Jaws

Doing research on these attacks was not easy. The attacks happened nearly a century back and recollection of these events was not easy. Further, the First World War was happening in that timeframe, which made research so much time later even more difficult, The book does not only describe the events which happened, but also provides a lot of information about sharks and why the attacks could have taken place. And how did the author get interested in this story ? He heard a conversation about these attacks, which caused him to get interested, and led to a lot of research and finally the emergence of this book.
The book also provides information about the nature of the attacks and describes the wounds caused on the dead and the survivor; something that most modern day attacks do not actually describe. What is most interesting is the research about why the attacks could have taken place, and if you see modern documentaries that research shark attacks, in a lot of cases, there are conclusions that it was some activity of man (or in some cases, natural causes) that in turn change the behavior of the shark and could cause these attacks.

Death Benefit (Published in 2011) - Authored by Robin Cook - Promise vs. greed

Afrodita Pia Grazdani has had the nightmare innumerable times. And it always has the requisite affect on her - leaving her in cold sweat, afraid and insecure. A fourth year medical student at the Columbia University, Pia has been offered an enviable assignment - assistant to the living legend, Nobel Laureate, molecular geneticist Dr. Tobias Rothman himself. He is conducting two researches simultaneously about virulent strains of salmonella and the other, more challenging task of finding out whether healthy human organs can be created from stem cells - organogenesis.
Pia is from Albania, and has undergone immense suffering as a child at the hands of her uncle and authorities in foster care, this hurt was entrenched further when her own father refused to come to her rescue at the foster care center; she is now twenty six and although beautiful, with a stream of admirers, suffers from what could only be some sort of a ‘detachment syndrome’. Her most loyal friend George Wilson, an ardent admirer with whom she has had intimate (according to her, plain sex) relations on four occasions to be precise, is at the receiving end of her lack of emotions; she would rather he leaves and goes home than spend the night in her bed! This is a serious flaw that mars the otherwise pristine beauty.




Dr. Rothman becomes the father figure in Pia’s life; she is deeply attached to him, making up for the loss of emotional contact from her own parent in her growing years. The doctor admires her tenacity and dedication, they become kindred spirits, he even confesses to her that he suffers from Asperger’s Syndrome. The success of his research means that Tobias will put a lot of drug companies out in the cold, as organs such as the pancreas will be ‘created’ in labs, bringing down the usage of diabetic drugs, a major source of revenue for drug firms. When Pia breaks the news that after she completes her research and Ph.D, she plans to look after the financial needs of the Convent of the Sisters of the Sacred Heart, Rothman is livid, he wonders how she can throw away an opportunity to work with him over a god forsaken charity in Africa! When she tells Tobias the reason why, he offers to loan her fifty thousand dollars for the Convent, the Mother Superior refuses to be repaid, using the word ‘betrayal’, even as Rothman urges Pia to move on instead of being bulldozed with ‘Catholic guilt’.
On the other hand, unknown to the scientists cocooned in their laboratories, the world of medicine, life and death is manipulated by avarice and money. Two former employees of Wall Street, set about to earn a quick buck by buying life insurance policies with death benefits, from people who are in dire straits. They pay premiums on the policies, collecting benefits when the people die. They have researched well and are aware that people in need of organ transplants are especially prone to financial crunches, weigh the odds of finding a donor, and the body rejecting the donated organ. The machinery they’ve created is well oiled and earning them enough cash, when things get a little shaky.
One of their own, a protégée of theirs, decides to pull a fast one on them - she is short selling their stock. Apparently the woman had wanted to be a part of their team, but was rejected, this mad her see red and she decided that they would pay for this decision. This brilliant yet twisted creature has gotten onto the trail of Dr. Rothman, and his cutting edge theory of organogenesis. Maybe these banking brains could make money out of it! Robin Cook has authored thirty odd books, Death Benefit  is another brilliant work from his amazing storehouse of storytelling and imagination!