PIKE

Nicky is shocked by something he glimpses in a local pond in this stand-alone follow-up to Brock (2024).

Their dad has a job and a likable new girlfriend, so things are looking up for Kenny, who sustained brain damage at birth, and his fiercely protective younger brother, Nicky. But when the boys go on a fishing expedition to a deep pond near a former meat pie factory, they spot a gold Rolex watch on what looks like an arm floating underwater. Nicky’s aware of how much the money would help the family if only he could recover and sell it. Unfortunately, he also regularly regales his credulous but delighted brother with gruesomely explicit tales of toothy pike that are capable of snatching certain precious body parts away from unwary skinny-dippers, which makes swimming out to investigate sound like a scary proposition even to himself. McGowan adds both a creepy, hooded stranger and a recently vanished local gangster (famous for his flashy Rolex) to the mix and dishes up a pair of wild nocturnal expeditions for the close-knit siblings. Everything culminates in a near-drowning, a successful retrieval of the watch, and (thankfully) a corpse-free explanation for its presence. Better yet, the boys’ father announces that he’s tracked down contact information for their long-departed mother, further lifting the buoyant ending of this engaging, concise, and accessibly written novel. The English cast largely reads white.

Equal parts horror and hilarity in a rousing aquatic escapade.