Recently widowered and grieving, Gavin flees New York City for the quiet of the country. His new home on Lake Caldasac has surprisingly few visitors, and the author soon learns why: a suspiciously high number of people have gone missing in the small town. The deaths have all been ruled accidents, but Finn Horn, a handicapped boy obsessed with fishing, knows the truth. There s a monster in the lake. And it wants to feed. Thirteen-year-old Finn, who is dying of cancer, has only one last wish: to go down in the record books for catching a real-life monster. Battling demons of his own, Gavin joins Finn on his perilous quest to slay the nightmarish leviathan. An homage to the blockbuster Jaws and the classic American novel Moby-Dick, Mannheim Rex is a deep dark thriller that switches seamlessly between heartwarming friendship and heart-stopping action."