Product Description

Seventeen-year-old PC can't resist his uncle Cliff's frantic call and is soon aboard a plane to Australia. Within hours of arriving, PC realizes that his uncle has gotten himself into an even more bizarre predicament than usual, and that Cliff is counting on him to unravel the threads of a mystery linking: a missing scuba diver, presumed dead; Maruul, a beautiful Aboriginal girl suffering from amnesia; a strange map based on a legend of a sacred treasure; an erie, seemly deserted ship; and a huge, horrible creature that lurks in the depths beneath the reef.
Trying to help the shaken young girl, PC and Cliff return to the reef where Maruul's brother vanished and take up the search for the Aboriginal treasure that will save the people of Maruul's tribe. But someone else is looking for the treasure too -- and when the two groups collide, a lethal game of hide-and-seek is played out beneath the deep and bloody water of the reef.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1798603 in Books
• Published on: 1999-06-15
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

From Amazon.com
Some say that the reason teens are so addicted to horror stories is because disgusting monsters, ghouls, and tentacled amphibians psychologically and creatively personify a teen's innermost angst. Proving that there is more than a grain of truth to the theory, crowned king of teenage angst Paul Zindel plunges into the world of horror with style in Reef of Death, his third fast-paced, thrilling tale of smart teens battling the slime of the earth. Even the most reluctant readers will find themselves furiously turning pages to find out what happens to P.C. McPhee when he hops a plane to Australia to help his crazy uncle solve an offshore mystery. A tidal wave of adventure and a cast of villains--including the biggest, nastiest, man-eating fish on earth--await him Down Under. Teens who love being scared out of their wits won't want to miss Zindel's other two horrifying tales: Loch and The Doom Stone, both chosen as Recommended Books for Reluctant Young Adult Readers by the American Library Association.

From Publishers Weekly
Set on Australia's Great Barrier Reef, this "thrill-a-chapter adventure... offers a maximum of gore and gimmicks," said PW. "On a literary-merit scale, this deep-sea escapade falls several leagues below the author's best work, but rises above many other books in the genre." Ages 10-14. (June)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
Grade 6-9?Set along Australia's Great Barrier Reef, this page-turning toothy-monster story is Zindel imitating Stine, a scary development. Two likable characters are gruesomely devoured by page 50, and too many others die before the pyrotechnic climax to keep an accurate count. Stereotypes abound. The evil Dr. Ecenbarger, a German scientist, is running an illegal undersea operation as a front for her real joy in life?feeding people who bother her to the various sea creatures she captures for that purpose. Maruul, a partial amnesiac who is described as having "big eyes that make you want to do things for her" is joined by PC McPhee, our hero, and Wally, a respected elder from Maruul's Aboriginal village who just happens to know quite a bit about scuba diving, personal computers, and the myths of his people. He sometimes speaks the queen's English?and then reverts to pidgin. It might be fun to read to see how many impossibilities and inconsistencies can be found, but this story is best read as pure fantasy, from PC's parents letting him rush across the Pacific to meet his "crazy uncle" (one of the first to become fish food) to the "kids win" ending, as promised in the dedication. Cartoonlike and silly.?Joel Shoemaker, Southeast Jr. High School, Iowa City, IA
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.