‘Floaters’ is a slick, engaging, don’t-go-near-the-water creature feature book that avoids groan-making clichés while delivering the mix of gory action, slow-reveal plot, ancient monster and a modern heroine that a really good creature story needs.

Most of the book reads like a good police procedural, which somehow makes the floating coffins, the desecrated Indian burial grounds, the strange slices on the bodies of the dead and the deadly tentacles that the police don’t know about at first, seem both scarier and more believable.

The creature attacks were set up with a nice mix of human interest, tension and sudden violence. The disturbingly well-described damage to the victims at the crime scenes and on the autopsy table brought with them the threat of something old, powerful, lethal and very unhappy.

The detective’s personal life was a mess but I never became truly engaged with that trauma, possibly because it was one she was trying to drink herself out of.

The end is violent and plausible but surprisingly low-key.

I thought this was a solid piece of entertainment. I’ll be looking for more of Kelli Owen’s books.