‘In the tradition of Night of the Crabs’
Croc is a 1976 horror novel written by David James.
One of the few US novels in the ‘nature strikes back’ subgenre, the novel was first published by Belmont Tower books, and was later picked up by pulp specialists New English Library for the UK in 1977.
The novel plays on the urban myth of alligators living in the sewers of major cities – the same myth that would fuel the film Alligator three years later in 1980 (to confuse the issue, there is also a novel called Alligator, by Shelly and Paul Katz, published in 1981, which is unconnected to the film).
The blurb for Croc states: “The crocodile was racing past him, and Reamers only had time to look up as the beast’s mouth opened wide, then closed with a sickening sound around the torso of one of the men.”
Like many books of this type, Croc is a fast-paced and fairly trashy yet an undeniably entertaining read.
David Flint, MOVIES and MANIA
