SWIMMER

Fifth in the Jim Rook chiller series (Snowman, 2000, etc.), this one providing his nemesis in the shape of a see-through teenager made entirely of water—and a very, very naughty girl she is. Rook teaches remedial English at California’s West Grove Community College and uses a lot of poetry to make his points. A former student begs him for psychic aid in the drowning death of her son, who was pulled underwater in their swimming pool. Wet footprints led away from the pool, although no one had been near it. Jim first sees a transparent teenager walking across a lawn. Then one of his students dies, pulled under while surfing. His friend Mervyn is nearly drowned in the bathtub. A girl is attacked by steam in the shower. Water in a swimming pool gathers into a wave and menaces a house, trying to drown the people within. It seems as though everyone threatened by this strange force has some tie to Jim’s class. Jim himself is assaulted in a carwash as the water girl tries to drown him amid the whirling brushes and drenching spray. Wherever there is water, this malevolent spirit can assemble herself and go on a rampage. So who is she?

Plain prose but super-gripping.