I'm seeking the title of a book published not more than three years
ago about a rouge great white shark that swam up an american river in
the 1800's or early 1900's and attacked people.  this book was
reviewed in time or newsweek or the wall street journal.  this is NOT
a book about shark attacks in 1916 off the new jersey coast.  the
shark wasn't caught so whether it was a great white is subject to
speculation.

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Request for Question Clarification by juggler-ga on 28 Jan 2004 22:45 PST

Are you 100% sure that the book wasn't about what happened in New Jersey in 1916?

The New Jersey shark was initially on the coast, BUT it also went up a
river and attacked people:

" Nearly two weeks later, the shark emerged almost 20 miles inland in
Matawan, having ridden the high surges of a tidal creek brought about
by the waxing moon. Here again a heroic bystander wrestled with the
shark for the corpse of a young boy taken off a pier. He paid the
ultimate price."
http://www.cnn.com/2001/SHOWBIZ/books/07/03/review.close.to.shore/

"That July 4th weekend, a great white shark appeared on the coast of
New Jersey and proceeded to wreak havoc for 13 days, even swimming
inland up the Matawan river and attacking unsuspecting bathers."
http://www.active.com/story.cfm?story_id=7873

"An equally ghastly and unexpected attack happened to young Lester
Stillwell just 11 days later as he floated in the brown soup of
Matawan Creek, a sluggish river near Staten Island. Richard Fernicola,
the author of Twelve Days of Terror, in which the attack is recounted,
says most of the town flocked to the river to take in the spectacle."
http://search.csmonitor.com/durable/2001/06/21/p16s1.htm

If you're absolutely certain that it wasn't the New Jersey shark, what
specific reasons do you have for believing that?

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Request for Question Clarification by nancylynn-ga on 30 Jan 2004 10:25 PST

Do you recall if this book was a work of nonfiction, or was it a novel?

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Clarification of Question by jhar68-ga on 01 Feb 2004 16:18 PST

I think the book was written last year.  Maybe it was a fictionalized
account of the 1916 story.

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Request for Question Clarification by juggler-ga on 01 Feb 2004 17:28 PST

Both of the two books mentioned in my 'request for clarification'
above received a lot of publicity a couple years ago.  Both books were
reviewed in many major newspapers and magazines.

Again, the books are:

"Twelve Days of Terror" by Richard G. Fernicola
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?isbn=1585745758&itm=1

-AND- 

"Close to Shore" by Michael Capuzzo
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?isbn=0767904141&itm=1

I strongly suspect that the book that you read about was one of these
two.  What do you think?

I don't suppose it could be "MEG"...?
  
"Steve Altens first book MEG, about a prehistoric shark, became a
bestseller on three best-selling listīs and was at the top on eight
20-listīs, including the listīs in Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New
York Times, Publishers Weekly, WaldenBooks, Barnes & Noble and
Literary Guild Alternate."
http://www.bahnhof.se/~wizard/GUSTeng03/artiklar_stevealten.html