Jaws: Peter Benchley

This book was very different than I had expected, though I have never seen the whole movie. The book focused more on the townspeople and the sheriff’s life in general, than on the Shark. A tourist town is plagued by a great white shark and no one understands why it has chosen that shoreline to hang out on. The policeman of the town had married one of the "summer people" and it is this summer his wife believes she has had enough of the simple life and misses the carefree abundance of her youth. She runs into the little brother of an old boyfriend and has an affair with him. The police officer listens to the town after the 1st death that the shark has moved on and not to mention anything because it would be bad for business. Two more people die. Then the Policeman, the "boyfriend" and a fisherman go to sea to hunt the shark down, only the policeman comes back but it is believed that the shark will die. The idea is that the shark is smarter than possible for a fish...and huge...and could pop up anywhere.