Frank Schätzing: The Swarm.
The first one to die was a fisherman off the coast of Chile. An oil company discovers some weird worms on Norway's continental shelf. Canadian whale watchers observe orcas behaving oddly. Shark attacks. Weird boat accidents. Gradually, it escalates...
In between the action there's oodles of information on everything from crab physiology to ocean geology. Usually that annoys me, but Schätzing managed to keep it interesting. I find it hard to forgive him for what he did to my home town, though.
(Don't read the Goodreads description, by the way -- for some reason they've summarised/spoiled three quarters of the book.)
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Originally Posted by BenG
War with the Newts by Karel Čapek
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Seconded! I read it this summer (was in Prague, and had to buy something by a local author). It's both really funny, and with a very dark view of humanity. One of the most chilling parts is a description of newth physiology, very dry and matter of fact, penned by a scientist, that looks like something Mengele could have written.
I haven't read Wool yet, but I see it recommended a lot, I'll have to put it on my pile of stuff to read.