An ancient and Biblical creature lurks in a remote fishing village, except it's a giant bloodsucking leech-like creature, which I thought kind of hilarious. Another inspiration for Lovecraft, apparently. I somehow feel like if M. R. James had written this, it could have been a lot better. In relation to what the ending turned out to be, there was way too much introduction, exposition, and padding, whereas James would have focused on terror and kept things to the point. I mean, Benson isn't a bad writer, but I hope his other horror stories are more entertaining and effective.