Have you ever seen a peacock mantis shrimp? Colorful and big, they are super aggressive with raptorial appendages that strike prey 50-times quicker than the blink of an eye. Their claws are able to break glass and snip off fingers. In other words, they are equally pretty and deadly.

Now try to imagine a gigantic nine-foot-long bioengineered super stomatopod. Without a doubt, it would have the potential to be an apex killing machine. But with luck, it might also be a government asset. The creature’s weaponized abilities could enhance any Navy armament—able to sink ships, take out subs and absorb any torpedo blast with a shrug. 

Such a beast already existed according to Stu Groskell’s new novel Splitter. The result of U.S. Navy bio-skills tech, the mutant shrimp was “enhanced” to increase endurance and subsea maneuverably (among other things). For added cognitive capabilities, Naval scientists decided to add a human element to the process. It was the crustacean version of transhumanism. 

With human consciousness, the sea monster (code name: Skeeter) had the mental faculty to plan, to strategize and to learn. But Skeeter turned out to be a dud, an “experimental impasse.” 

Instead of being a tactical win for the Navy, the giant mantis-shrimp turned out to be an uncontrollable liability. When it escaped into the Caribbean Sea, the U.S. Government was desperate to eliminate the abomination. “There was no place for such a thing in this world,” said Admiral Val Clewton.

Enter Jack Tarr, former Navy SEAL and current college professor. Because he was now a crustacean expert he was the logical choice to lead an expedition to find (and capture) Skeeter. At first, he was hesitant to jump back into service, but he couldn’t resist the lure of a new species of marine life. With some reservations, he signed up for a seven-day tour of duty. 

From this point forward, the author starts using a jumble of USN lingo in his prose. Fans of seafaring adventures will undoubtedly enjoy the elaborate details, but others might be overwhelmed by the tactical exposition, mundane operational procedures and opaque Navy slang. If you’re like me, you’ll be tempted to skip big chucks of text to get to the monster action. 

Otherwise, Groskell’s prose is excellent. He makes you really hate the villains, Admiral Clewton and his mad scientist bitch Dr. Lucas Tammes. He also addresses the relationship shared between monster and man. “Monsters made you aware of your tininess status,” he wrote at one point, “the utter irrelevance of your existence.” 

And, of course, the monster was monstrous. When finally revealed, Skeeter was primal and maddeningly inscrutable—and weirdly creepy like all biological and technical hybrids. Moving from the Bahamas to the Florida Keys and finally to the Mississippi River, it proved to be an unstoppable deviance of God’s law.

[ Splitter / By Stu Groskell / First Printing: January 2025 / ISBN: 9781923165441 ]