Poseidon's Arrow

September 24, 2012
The fifth Dirk Pitt novel from bestseller Cussler and son Dirk (after 2010’s Crescent Dawn) features expanded roles for Pitt’s two grown kids. Both Summer and Dirk Jr. help their dad try to corral ruthless Austrian entrepreneur Edward Bolcke, who runs a slavery compound in Central America where kidnapped sailors are forced into servitude to assist in his many criminal enterprises. In particular, Bolcke has managed to steal a crucial component of the U.S. Navy’s latest submarine technology—and he has found a way to hijack the world’s supply of rare earth minerals. The three Pitts, along with longstanding sidekick Al Giordino, use their usual mix of brains and brawn to see that justice is served. While some readers may have a problem with sluggish action sequences and a surfeit of story lines, ardent followers of the Pitt clan and their nautical escapades will appreciate the family dynamics and camaraderie. Agent: Peter Lampack, Peter Lampack Agency.

October 15, 2012
The United States is on the brink of approving the fastest, most powerful attack submarine ever when its designer is killed and his plans are stolen. In his efforts to recover a crucial piece of the prototype, superseaman Dirk Pitt faces a series of violent encounters on land and water. In his 22nd adventure (Crescent Dawn, 2010, etc.), Pitt, director of the National Underwater and Marine Agency, is matched with Austrian baddie Edward Bolcke. A grudge-bearing villain out of James Bond who made his fortune in mining in Colombia and Panama, he has been adroitly manipulating the Chinese by selling them their own rare earth elements. The magnetic properties of the minerals are vital to the development of weapons systems and other computer-based properties--which may explain why ships transporting the materials have been disappearing and bodies have been found burnt to a crisp by irradiation. Teaming with the attractive and dangerously impulsive NCIS agent Ann Bennett--as well as his oceanographer daughter Summer and marine engineer son Dirk Jr.--Pitt applies all his skills as an ex-Air Force man to outsmarting and, in some cases, outrunning Bolcke's henchmen. The action scenes can be predictable, the dialogue wooden. But to their credit, the Cusslers (collaborating for the fifth time) overcome the factory aspect of these novels with bursts of energy and efficient storytelling. They also sustain a level of intelligence not always found in mass-market adventure fiction. Ranging from Panama and Mexico to Idaho and Washington, D.C., this book is constantly on the move--one reason it avoids dull spots so well.

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October 15, 2012
Compared to his newer series, such as the Isaac Bell and Fargo thrillers, the Dirk Pitt novels feel a little old-fashioned. The Mediterranean Caper, the first in the series, was published 40 years ago, and apart from the regular addition of new technologies and other contemporary trappings, the Pitt novels really haven't veered too far from the formula established in the beginning. Pitt, a marine engineer and globe-trotting adventurer, risks life and limb to defeat a clever and resourceful villain. The story here involves a new American submarine. It will be faster, quieter, and more powerful than anything else under the seas, but its designer has been killed, and his plans and scale model have vanished. Nobody else knows how to finish building the sub, and now, with the plans stolen, an unknown party has the ability to build his or her own. Wildly implausible, yes, but a solid enough jumping-off point for more of the usual adventure and fisticuffs. Dirk Pitt is no longer the gold standard of Cussler's many seriesthat's now Isaac Bellbut Pitt still has enough gumption to keep us reading. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Formula fiction sells, if the formula has a track record, and Cussler (and his coauthors) certainly have that. Aggressive marketing, of course, will help.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)