This fifth book in Guy N. Smith's infamous 'Crabs' series is fully titled 'Night of the Crabs 2: Crabs' Moon', but it's neither a true sequel nor a prequel to the series starter. It runs roughly parallel to the original story, with some of the same characters cropping up, along with a whole host of new ones, and that unfortunately lends an air of inevitability to proceedings. We know what's to come and the only real surprise is that we're mostly not there when it happens, because we happen to be elsewhere.

When the giant crabs attack the War Department airbase, we're not there watching it happen in this book; we're on Miles Manning's private yacht, the Ocean Queen, where he's entertaining the most important guests staying at his property, the Blue Ocean Holiday Camp. They all witness the explosions but only interact with the crabs when the yacht bounces over a couple of them lurking underwater. At least there's some suspense here because we expect more than actually happens. Smith was keeping some of the mayhem he'd planned in check for now. We do relish the news that Manning decides not to evacuate Blue Ocean when the crabs come, as stupid an idea as it is.

When the Battle of Barmouth happens, we're not where we were in the first book but the result is mostly the same, right down to a tank attempting to blast the crabs to pieces only to be picked up and unceremoniously dumped into the sea. Of course, we know precisely what happens to Ian and Julie, the first victims of the crustacean menace in 'Night of the Crabs', but we watch it all go down again. At least Bartholomew the Barmouth beachcomber is given something different this time out, even if we know how he gets his in the end. At least he gets the opportunity to see Irey Wall sleeping stark naked in the sand dunes before his death.

Irey is a new character, who we expect is going to be revealed as the first victim, ahead of Ian and Julie, but she survives. She's a married woman, but she's clearly being taken for granted by Alan, her husband, who's enjoying a fishing trip with his mates while she's packed off to look after their kids at Blue Ocean. So she talks herself into giving herself to another holidaymaker called Keith, a holidaymaker with a car who can drive them to the beach. He goes skinnydipping while she strips off in the sand to give him a treat when he gets back. Instead she falls asleep, covers up when the beachcomber wanders up and eventually goes back to the holiday camp because Keith is nowhere to be seen. Yes, he's the first victim rather than her.

Any Brits who only remember cheap holiday camps from the TV sitcom Hi-De-Hi will be surprised to find that Blue Ocean, which is far from cheap, is a hotbed of sexual activity. Women in Smith's novels—and, to be fair, in most British horror novels of the time—tend to be there for titillation, even when, like Irey, she never actually gets any during the book. She's there for the guilt factor and the character growth, because Smith clearly sets her up with Gordon Smallwood, a greencoat at the camp, and we do hope that both of them survive to the end to walk off into the sunset. Do they? Read the book.

Of course, if Irey isn't the nympho in the book, someone else has to be and that's Jean Ruddington this time out. She's been sleeping with Gordon for a while but she's tiring of him. She's also been sleeping with Gerry in town and she's already tired of him but she goes to see him anyway. None of her boyfriends—and there are plenty of them, it appears—know about any of the others but it cannot be said that she's remotely happy. However, in a horror novel from an era when the intent was always to layer on as much sex and violence as possible without losing sight of character, she's a perfect opportunity for both. She's stuck in town during the Battle of Barmouth and threatened not only by giant crabs but by the fire they trigger when they come ashore and crush everything.

I won't explain how she gets hers, though karma dictates that she does, but I will say that it didn't remotely happen in the way I expected. The deaths here sometimes don't, Miles Manning falling prey to a simple heart attack while failing to escape the wreckage of his holiday camp with $25k in cash. However, if that suggests that Smith has lost his touch or was deliberately toning down that sex and violence, I should introduce you to Benjie Thompson, a mentally handicapped fifteen-year-old who's half challenge to his mother, Fay, and half true character. Fay isn't, as another snob who got rich in a lucky way and feels that she has to hide it from the world, just like Emily Brownlow in Accursed, Smith's previous book. That's a quick recycle.

I'm sure you're already wondering how a mentally handicapped fifteen-year-old can play into sex and violence. Well, the sex is a masturbation session that Fay accidentally walks in on and tries to guilt him about, only to find that he's not remotely guilty and blissfully carries on even with her a highly unwilling witness. If that wasn't enough, Smith sets up his demise gloriously, explaining his fascination with guns, which to him mean a couple of pointed fingers and vocalised sound effects like "Pow... ka-pow... pow..." just like the spaghetti westerns. He has every intention of saving the day for the holiday camp by shooting down the giant crabs and I bet you can guess how effective he turns out to be. Oh yes, Smith goes there.

Then again, nobody else here is really any more effective, even if they can boast higher IQs or an array of actual weaponry, from guns to tanks. This is the fifth book in a series and we've learned by now that the crabs are going to have it pretty much entirely their own way for the majority of the page count until Cliff Davenport can save the day. And he is here, of course, being the saviour of Barmouth in the original book, but he's not a primary character, showing up 69 pages into 192 and flitting in and out as it runs on from there. Mostly he serves as a reminder that this is taking place at the same time as 'Night of the Crabs' by providing reference points to it.

I didn't like this one as much as I'd hoped. I remembered it as a good one and it's certainly better told than 'Night of the Crabs', Smith having learned a lot in the seven years and thirty-one novels in between the two books. It feels far more substantial, the characters are far better developed and the setpieces are more effective. It's not a bad book. However, it's very much a companion to the original, meaning that, while we could read it in isolation, it plays better with the knowledge we gained from the original.

After all, that's where the pivotal story is, the cinematic one with a beginning and an ending. This is additional material for anyone who cares, so it can kinda-sorta get away with a vastly different ending that doesn't even try to wrap up the big picture but concentrates on a particular subplot that's happening on its fringes. It's like watching a monster movie, pausing and realising that the background has stuff in it, people and places and stories, so it probably caught some of the chaos the monster wrought too. The question is whether we care? This book is the solution for everyone who answers yes.

Next up: another follow-up. 'Crabs' Moon' continued Smith's 'Crabs' series, of course. 'The Walking Dead', released six months later, continued the story of 'The Sucking Pit'. Further returns to older series would have to wait another three years, when Smith returned to 'Thirst' and 'Deathbell'. ~~ Hal C F Astell

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