Just finished the first of my Christmas books, Jacob's Well by Stephen Harrigan. This is a story that is based around a fictionalization of a very real place, the once mysterious Jacob's Well in Wimberly, TX. As a caver I have known about the Well for years, mostly because of the often gruesome accident/fatality reports I would often read. Gruesome events, yes, but they're the sort of things that occasionally inspire someone to write a book, and if we're fortunate, it's a good one and we get to read it.

Now as it happens, author Harrigan was one of the divers who had the sad duty to participate on a body recovery in Jacob's Well many moons ago, and he turned the memories of this unfortunate experience into a really remarkable story. In fact, I would go so far as to say that this is just the sort of book that reminds me how much I enjoy reading, and how much I wish I could write so well...it really is that good. That it revolves around diving and particularly cave diving is purely incidental, unlike other such books I've read...I'm thinking David Poyer's Down to a Sunless Sea here, where the locale and the activity is central to the progression of the story. In Harrigan's work the interest is in the characters and their often complex relationship to one another. The characterization is as deep as the well itself, and the primary antagonists are all fascinating and not at all cliche'd. Nicely done.

As to the story itself, I must confess this is one of those works that once you get to the end, you are tempted to rush through it, especially if you're approaching the finish at 11 PM as I did. DON'T DO IT! Trust me, put the book down and finish it when you're lucid! The last thirty or forty pages are as gripping as any contemporary suspense novel you've ever read...this despite the fact that Harrigan's work was originally published in 1984. You're going to want to enjoy this denouement, savor it.

Jacob's Well has aged remarkably well, and maintains its sense of mystery throughout as much as the real Jacob's Well has through the years. Of course the fact is that the Well has been explored rather completely over the course of the past ten to fifteen years...weirdly, that original sense mystery still remains. What's around the next corner? Can we squeeze past that obstruction? Does the passage end, or will it continue for miles and miles? Life can be like that, I suppose.

At any rate, it's marvelous stuff and comes highly recommended. You can purchase the reprint (complete a very appropriate and informative afterword by Harrigan) through Amazon. ( )

A love triangle against a backdrop of cave scuba diving with unique, complicated and intriguing characters. ( )