Book Review: Fatalis

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Fatalis     Amazon US HC Amazon Canada HC
Jeff Rovin
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Science Fiction   Present Day Science Based   Horror
St. Martin’s, May 2000, $25.95, 384 pp.

They were ancient predators though to have become extinct in the last Ice Age. At least two have survived by being cryogenically frozen in the heart of a glacier. When the glacier melts, the duo makes their home inside the caves in the Santa Ynez Mountains near Santa Barbara. No one realizes they live there even though they kill humans. Sheriff Malcolm Gearhart is determined to hunt down the mass murderer who is leaving no clues at the crime scene save for an enormous amount of the victims’ blood.

Paleoanthropologist Jim Grand studies some ancient Chumish drawings in one of the Santa Ynez caves when he finds some strange looking fur that he brings back to the college lab to be analyzed. Hannah Hughes, owner and publisher of the daily newspaper The Coastal Freeway, interviews Professor Grand. He shows her his find, fur that belongs to a living Smilidon fatalis. Hannah accompanies Jim back to the cave to see if they can locate the creature while the Sheriff tries to flush out the cave dwellers and kill them before the public learns they exist. Nobody realizes how cunning and intelligent these creatures really are or what their true agenda is.

Fans of Godzilla and Mothra movies will enjoy reading this modern day horror novel where the villains are prehistoric beings living in the twenty-first century. The audience will chillingly relish how effortlessly the monsters adapt to civilization. Jeff Rovin never allows the audience the luxury of knowing who is hunting whom, a situation that adds to the overall enjoyment of the story line. FATALIS should be a large success for the author whose vivid descriptions make for an easy movie adaptation.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner