31 Days of Halloween - Day 18 - Book

Slimer by Harry Adam Knight. Valancourt Books. 1983.

After their yacht sinks, a group of six twenty-something's finds themselves adrift at sea. Eventually they come up to an oil platform. Once on board they find that it's not a working oil platform, but a secret laboratory, and all of the people and lab animals seem to have vanished, but there is something on board with them. As the mystery of empty clothes and a strange black oily substance intensifies, they encounter a small number of the scientific staff who aren't what they seem, and a strange creature intent on taking them out one by one.

John Brosnan and Roy Kettle, writing as Knight, have crafted a briskly paced, exciting tale of genetic experimentation, filled with paranoia and shape shifting creatures. It may seem like a knock-off of The Thing, set on a oil platform instead of the arctic. While there are some similarities, including the need to keep the creature from escaping into the outside world, Slimer is inventive in its own way. This was a very fun and chilling read.