Down Deep

By Mike Croft
Trafalgar Square, $14.95, 376 pages

With a theme reminiscent of an old Star Trek movie, Down Deep features a whale called Blackfin, a cognizant, sagacious old whale who orchestrates a mass movement of thousands of cetaceans. A mass beaching on the English coast leads a controversial British marine biologist into the spotlight, in spite of his aversion to media coverage. He sets out to determine what message the whales are trying to deliver to the humans, with implications that carry up to the highest levels of government and conveniently destroys the protagonist’s arch nemesis.

“Do you think that a whale could deliberately kill itself by deciding not to breathe? As the ultimate protest against something?”

Mike Croft spins a good adventure story; his characters are likeable, and the tale of hazmat dumping creating havoc in the ocean is a timely one. The story’s language is appropriate to the popular fiction genre, the mildly overused turn of phrase is present but infrequent, and the book occasionally borders on an eco-preservation lecture. The reader sometimes gets Blackfin’s point of view, an interesting conceit.  It’s a good, predictable, and simple read. If whales could talk, is this what they would tell us?

Reviewed by Robin Martin