The second ocean thriller by CSU employee and alumnus Ryan Lockwood recently hit bookstores, and the Fort Collins Barnes & Noble will host a book signing with the author from 1 to 3 p.m. on Saturday.

Set in the Bahamas and offering similar terror and suspense elements as the blockbuster novel Jaws, the plot of What Lurks Beneath revolves around scuba diving, marine biology, Caribbean mythology and military technology.

Lockwood’s debut fiction book, Below, also published by Pinnacle Fiction/Kensington Books, was released in 2013 and now boasts a 4.3-star rating on Amazon. This second installment is set a few years after the first, and follows some of the some main characters on another terrifying undersea mystery.

“Although I wrote both of these books primarily to provide a fun escape for readers, I also hope to raise awareness of some of the problems our oceans face,” Lockwood said. “Problems caused by humanity, such as declining fisheries, ocean acidification, increasing water temperatures and the unintended side effects of our undersea activities.”

He says he based both books loosely on real-world events and his own experiences scuba diving off Southern California and the Bahamas. Besides writing fiction on the side, since 2010 Lockwood has been the public and media relations coordinator for the Colorado State Forest Service, a service and outreach agency of the Warner College of Natural Resources. He holds a degree in technical journalism from CSU and an environmental science degree from California State University Monterey Bay.

The Fort Collins Barnes & Noble is located at 4045 S. College Ave.

For more information about Lockwood’s books, visit his website. He also maintains a Facebook page.