Speaking of weird tales that take place under water, I recently read Fluke: Or, I know why the winged whale sings by Christopher Moore. This was another of those books I bought because of the manipulative sales techniques of bookstores. They trap me like those fish cages where the fish swims in the large hole that gradually gets smaller and then can't get out because the hole looks too small. Fluke was positioned right out front and its shiny cover and intriguing plot hooked me.

Given the preferred reader card that was burning a whole in my pocket there was little I could do to resist.

I understand Christopher Moore is a popular author - his previous book Lamb was, according to the blurbs on the back, quite well received - but I had not previously read any of his work. Since I enjoy quirky, even slightly odd, books I figured Fluke would prove entertaining. I was correct, Fluke is a quirky and slightly odd book and it was entertaining.

The main character is Nate Quinn, a marine behaviorial biologist trying to figure out why whales sing. He and his research partner, Clay Demodocus, are based in Maui. In the course of his work Nate sees what appears to be the words "Bite Me" on the fluke or tail of the whale. This starts in motion a series of increasingly implausible events. Someone trashes the research facility they use, the roll of flim containing the proof of what Nate saw on the tail comes up missing, and their boat disappears. But soon these activities seem mundane as the book picks up the pace and climbs to its surprise revelation. What starts out as your basic mystery, in the hands of Christopher Moore becomes a surreal comic adventure. I won't spoil it for you because it is a real doozy, but as the cover flap reveals, it takes place 623 feet underwater off the coast of Chille. It involves one of Nate's old proffesors and something like the primordial soup you learned about in biology.