"Eye of The Whale" Review

This week I read one of the best novels that I've read in a VERY long time. A couple of weeks ago I found Dr. Greene's Blog and there was an amazing post by Doug Abrams called, "An Unprecedented Experiment on our Children." After reading the post, I knew I wanted to read more by this author. So, I contacted him and he graciously sent me a copy of his latest fact-based novel, "Eye of the Whale."

When I first began reading, "Eye of the Whale," I didn't know what to really expect. Abrams blog is about the dangers of chemicals and our children, and the book is about a marine biologist studying whale communication patterns. I'm not a book jacket reader and was wanting a surprise. But, I was really curious how Abrams was going to combine the two. I was immediately sucked in with the beautiful imagery of the whales and the complexity of the characters. Abrams seriously has a way with words! Then the book unexpectedly took a turn in to a full force suspense novel that I couldn't put down.

"Eye of the Whale" is a conglomerate of characters that fuse in a amazing and some times alarming way. The book begins with marine biologists at sea, studying whales and their speech patterns. The main character, Elizabeth, is on her last day of her exhibition when she hears an unusual pattern change in the whales song. She documents her discovery and uploads her data as soon as she gets home. Upon her return, she receives a notice from her professor that her funding has been cut and she is required to turn in her dissertation in a unrealistic time frame. At the same time, Elizabeth's husband had grown tired of her mental/physical absence and leaves her. As Elizabeth's life is spiraling out of control, a humpback whale, Apollo, was discovered swimming up the Sacramento River singing the same new song that was heard many miles away. Around the same time, scientists from all over the world began to hear other humpback whales singing the same song. Elizabeth knew something wasn't right and made it her mission to discover what the whales were saying and was committed to save Apollo- whatever the cost.

"Eye of the Whale," also delves into the lives of many other characters and how they intertwine, including: Elizabeth's whaler ex-boyfriend, whalers from all over the world, her neo-natal doctor husband, her animal rights activist best friend, professors, Apollo the whale, a Chemical Industry's CEO, members of the ESC, and more. My favorite quote is from a professor, "In other words, chemicals are innocent until proven guilty." That so sums up the lack of government testing chemicals!

This thoughtfully written book is packed with romance, science, suspense, ecological facts and so much more. It is so complex, I can't begin to explain the full force of the book without revealing some of its best parts. As a writer, I could only aspire to write something as creative and masterful as Doug Abrams has written.



You can purchase "Eye of the Whale" at Amazon for $19.72. This would make an excellent stocking stuffer for any book lover! You can also purchase the book as an ebook or hardcopy from Simon and Schuster for $25.95.