River of Teeth is novella based on an absolutely nuts alternate history, a plan to introduce hippos to the United States for meat that almost went through. This story bolts the premise on to a bog standard western plot. Houndstooth has accepted a lot of money to clear out feral hippos from an artificial lake on the Mississippi River, and has put together a deadly and sexually ambiguous squad full of old enmities to do it. After that, it's nothing but knives, explosions, and people getting eaten by hippos. Somehow, it adds up to less than it should. A book like this should be Gothic. Should be Southern. Should be Weird. This is passable adventure fiction.