1974; Doubleday & Company publishers, New York; hardbound; very good condition with unmarked pages; dust jacket very good with very minor edgewear; 311 pages; spine with silver lettering, very nice.
 
description -
It tells the story of a great white shark that preys upon a small resort town and the voyage of three men trying to kill it. The novel grew out of Benchley's interest in shark attacks after he learned about the exploits of Montauk, New York shark fisherman Frank Mundus in 1964. Doubleday commissioned him to write the novel in 1971, a period when Benchley worked as a freelance journalist.
 
plot -
The story is set in Amity, a fictional seaside resort town on the south shore of Long Island, New York within the "Hamptons" region; the novel places it halfway between Bridgehampton and East Hampton. One night, a massive great white shark kills a young tourist named Chrissie Watkins while she skinny dips in the open waters after she and a man make love on the beach. After finding what remains of her body washed up on the beach, investigators realize she was attacked by a shark. Police chief Martin Brody orders Amity's beaches closed, but mayor Larry Vaughn and the town's selectmen overrule him out of fear for damage to summer tourism, the town's main industry. With the connivance of Harry Meadows, the editor of the local newspaper, they hush up the attack.
A few days later, the shark kills a young boy named Alex Kintner and Morris Cater, an elderly man, not far from shore. A local fisherman, Ben Gardner, is hired by Amity's authorities to kill the shark, but disappears...