It was common back in the day to feature mature pipe-smoking heroes who were unaccountably irresistible to attractive young women, and Professor Davenport, complete with greying hair and aquiline features is just such a specimen. It’s late pulp-fiction hokum and is, in its own way, very enjoyable, not least because the thought of Rhyl being destroyed by giant crabs is, to my shame, a fairly pleasant one. It’s a very short novel (I read the whole thing in one day during my commute to and from work) and a curious beast of a book. No one will believe them until the crabs, getting a bit bold, emerge from the sea and attack an army base. They witness not only the huge crabs emerging from the sea, led by a gargantuan of the species whom they dub ‘King Crab’ but the killing and consumption of a deaf and dumb beachcomber. The Professor, and his new love, Pat, decide to check the beach at night as crabs apparently are drawn by the light of the moon.

More disappearances are reported along the coast between Barmouth and Rhyl. It isn’t long before the somewhat mature Professor discovers claw marks in the sand that can only have been made by a crab the size of a cow. When a search can find no trace of the pair, the Professor sets off for Wales to investigate. When Professor Cliff Davenport’s nephew takes his girlfriend for a dirty weekend in Barmouth the last thing he expects is for the two of them to get chopped up and eaten by giant crabs.

Killer Crabs by Guy N. Smith