Marine biologists, comparative psychologists, neuroscientists and cognitive experts all agree that octopuses are smart. Yet their intelligence is so alien—so fundamentally different from our own—that it resists conventional measurement. Some scientists (and science fiction writers) have even speculated that, under slightly different environmental conditions, octopods might have evolved to become the dominant species on Earth in place of humans. 

The giant octopus in Mark Hobson’s latest novel certainly knows what it’s doing. Creeping through the waters of the North Sea, the monster has a singular goal—to assert its place as the world’s undisputed ruler of sea and land. “To find people and to feed on them,” says Hobson bluntly. 

The novel begins when a couple of bodies wash ashore at Saltwick Quay, a small fishing port located at the tip of the North Sea. Dr. Samantha Steele, a forensic pathologist, quickly determines that a deadly deep-sea apex predator is responsible for the deaths. She calls it Octopus abyssalis borealis, a newly discovered species of very large and aggressive octopods. 

Chris Keeble, the port’s harbormaster, isn’t surprised. “When you spend your whole life living and working around the sea,” he says, “you’re bound to cross paths with something horrible.” Keeble, the hero of our story, is a drunken layabout with a notorious past. He was in the Royal Navy at one time, but was dishonorably discharged. 

The British Navy and the Norwegian Sjøforsvaret (along with Steele and Keeble) begin tracking the sea monster. It’s pretty easy to follow because the creature is clearly on a rampage. To complicate matters further, Russian ships are also in the area, and they’re interested in the octopus too.

In Chapter 17 alone, the abyssal beast destroys a lighthouse, a bridge and an offshore oil rig. To top it off, the octopus even pulls itself across land to smash a church full of congregants. ”The religious sanctuary that had sheltered generations could not withstand the attack and folded in on itself, burying all the people beneath stone and shattered wood.”

The explosive climax takes place back where it all began at Saltwick Quay. The 400-foot creature is utterly incomprehensible. The monstrous, dome-shaped, mottled mantle of the giant’s bulbous head breaches the water, resembling a surfacing submarine. A set of black eyes looks down at the onlookers with an inscrutable, cold and logical gaze. Like the Bible’s Leviathan, it is a beast of immense scale that magnified how puny we all are compared to God’s creations. 

There are a few last-second surprises (of course), but the biggest one comes on the very last page. In fact, Attack of the Killer Octopus has the greatest ending of any novel I’ve ever read. I had to read it twice (maybe three times) to make sure it actually ended the way I thought it did. 

[ Attack of the Killer Octopus / By Mark Hobson / First Printing: March 2026 / ISBN: 979825142118 ]