Baby Shark

Baby Shark, a teenage girl, doesn't have the normal teenage evenings. Baby's are spent in pool halls, where she watches her father shark for a living. But one night, Baby's father bucks the wrong gang. He's murdered, along with the son of the proprietor, and Baby Shark is raped, beaten and left for dead. Most young girls, if they recovered at all, would be traumatized by this for the rest of their lives, probably hover in the shadows, stay close to walls, and avoid the eyes of oncoming people. Not our Baby Shark. She heals and vows revenge. Housed by the proprietor of the bar that was trashed and burned, the man who lost his son, he secures martial arts and guns experts to mentor his protege, while she seeks out the best pool training in the land. Meanwhile, a sleazy private eye friend of the bar owner has been tracking down the gang. When she's ready, Baby Shark swoops out of the deep and delivers fatal bites tailored to each participant in the crime. This is no normal book of revenge. This book seethes; it burns. The reader revels in the cold revenge Baby Shark dispenses. I couldn't put this book down.

The finest read I've enjoyed in many moons. A marvelously spare writing style, tremendous sense of character and a plot that is a compellingly original reworking of a script dating at least to Homer, Baby Shark has a screenplay feel,in the very best sense. The plot stays on message, the dialogue drives the plot, the characters LEAP off the page in technicolor, and the result is even more than the sensational parts. Any man or woman who remembers what it was like to push the bounds of convention in the 50s and 60s will treasure this book. Yet Fate's contemporary style appeals to Gen-Xers as well!

This book was a real page-turner. I started it Friday early evening, thinking that I'd just read for an hour or so, then proceded to consume my weekend with the characters and story Fate has shared with us. You can't tell me this is his first published book; his writing style, character development and imagery all have the marks of a seasoned story teller. And you really care about the characters. Well some of them; the bad guys you want to hate. But every reader will thrill with identifying with Kristin as she gets well and totally remakes herself into a lean mean fighting machine to exact her revenge. I can't wait to see what she does next. Thanks, Robert, for this new, attractive character on the fiction landscape with places to go and wrongs to right.

An intriguing story with unexpected twists and turns...very exciting. Having lived in Fort Worth for many years, I could identify with the setting and the flavor of the times. I can hardly wait for the next Baby Shark book to find out what happens to Kristin and to see what Robert Fate does with Beaumont!

It's hard to believe Baby Shark is a first novel, because Robert Fate knows all the buttons to push to keep the reader turning pages and caring about the characters. Even if you think you won't like the book because of the synopsis (and there is a lot of violence in the book, but it is so refreshing to find a young heroine who is not willing to be a victim!), give it a try. I am looking forward to more books from Mr. Fate about Baby Shark or whoever else he wants to write about. I think this book deserves a "Best First Novel" nomination, at least.