Twelve Days of Terror

Richard Fernicola wrote Twelve Days of Terror as the definitive nonfiction account of the 1916 New Jersey shark attacks, the real events that influenced Peter Benchley’s Jaws decades later. Across twelve days in July, four people were killed and one seriously injured along the New Jersey shore, including in a creek several miles from the open ocean.

Fernicola is a physician, and his interest is partly forensic. He works through what’s known about the attacks themselves, the panic that spread along the East Coast, the early state of marine biology that left scientists genuinely puzzled, and the various theories about which species was responsible.

The book balances historical narrative with technical material. Some sections are dense.

For readers interested in maritime history, the early days of marine biology, or the origins of the modern fear of sharks, this is the essential text. Pair it with Michael Capuzzo’s Close to Shore for a different angle on the same events.