02/16/2026 Candace Reviews: THRESHER by Michael Cole
- Candace Nola
- 4 hours ago
- 2 min read
Thresher
by Michael Cole
Audiobook
‘Could be the bookish love child of Jaws and The Meg 2’
Thresher was a lot of fun to listen to and grew wilder by the minute. Small town horror by the sea. Boaters become prey for a grossly overgrown Thresher shark, which leads to wide-spread panic, multiple bodies being washed ashore (at least, the parts not eaten), and a mystery to be solved by local police offer Leanord Riker, an officer of some infamy in his own right, who feels like a Clint Eastwood style character, gruff, gritty, no-nonsense, work alone type of guy. In my opinion, that only makes him a bit more likable in this story.
Paired with a rookie by the name of Allison Metzler (against his will), Riker sets out to save as many people as he can, while fighting with crooked politicians, lowlife journalists, and his personal demons. There is something bigger going on off the coast of Merit and Riker is determined to find out what.
This book was pure fun and a nice break from the horror that I normally consume. I love a good audiobook that entertains, and this one did that just fine. It’s marketed as a deep-sea thriller and I enjoyed it.
I did see a few reviews crunching some finer points regarding details about diving, fishing, or other facts but for me, those minor things did not retract from the story, (if I had known the accurate facts while reading, it still would not have detracted from the story for me).
As my opening line states, this story could very well have been a cross between an old classic and a more modern tale of deep-sea horror and it checked off those boxes nicely for action, pacing, tension, emotion and a bit of humor.