The Terror Below by Douglas E. Pike is a horror novel set in the captivating world of deep-sea diving. When the Lady Luck happens upon an unknown shipwreck, the captain, Charlie Davenport, could not have known what would go wrong the day he took four divers out to it. Weird things started happening; rough seas and peculiar fish were only the beginning. When two of the four divers do not survive the dive, Eric Cage is called in to retrieve Max, the son of Al’s widow. Being a trained navy diver, he is the only one qualified to make the dive, and upon a special request from Al’s widow, he agrees. With a few divers, they set out to retrieve Max's body, but the occurrences beforehand should have been a warning.

The Terror Below by Douglas E. Pike lives up to its name of being terrifying. If the fact that the story mostly takes place deep under the sea in murky water isn’t enough, the ghostly experiences from the different parties definitely will be. What I enjoyed about the writing in this novel is that it not only focuses on the main character, Eric, but also refers to the accounts of the other characters. Background stories are also a big part of The Terror Below, and I enjoyed the bit of history, which was also part of the novel. The author gave enough detail in his storytelling for you to picture the events unfolding, and there were a few times I felt the shiver of goosebumps. I would recommend this novel to anyone who enjoys a good scare.

It's been three years, but the memories of failing his son in his hour of need still haunt Eric like it happened yesterday. He has stayed out of the water more as a reminder to himself than any other thing, but when he receives an old friend's frantic plea to help recover a loved one's remains from a scuba diving site, Eric knows he cannot refuse them. However, he is completely unprepared for this dive as a series of unusual events surrounding the sunken vessel lead him to believe there is more to it than he believes. Malevolence and revenge have merged in one location as an entity seeks to finish what was started so long ago in The Terror Below by Douglas Pike.

The actions of the past return to haunt the present in this horror novel by Douglas Pike. The story jumps right into the meat of the matter from the start, which sets the tone for a properly spooky experience. Pike inserts subtle mysteries into the subplots to keep you on edge throughout the story. His cast of characters is interesting to follow as they are very well put together, and the use of flashbacks in recreating pivotal aspects of the story created a riveting atmosphere that successfully amped up the fear factor in the story. The best part of this novel for me has to be the loose ends Pike deliberately drops into strategic parts of the story that made me wonder if there is more to the overall storyline than meets the eye. The Terror Below is masterful storytelling at its very best.