Date first published	27 Oct. 2011
ISBN Number	978 0 718 15724 1
Page Count	404 h/b
h/b= hardback : p/b= paperback

Storyline

It is the early years if the 20th century, air travel is still in it's infancy, and newspaper publisher Preston Whiteway us offering $50,000 for the first flier to cross America in less than fifty days. He is even sponsoring one of the candidates - a barnstorming woman flier named Josephine Frost. That's where Isaac Bell comes in.

Frost's violent-tempered business magnate husband, Harry, has just killed her lover and tried to kill her and now he's on the run - but Whiteway is sure he'll try again. not that that's news to Bell. he tangled with Harry Frost ten years before, and lost badly. he knows that Frost has access to thieves, murderers and thugs in every city in the country. He knows Frost won't just be coming after his wife, but after Whiteway. Bell knows that if he takes the case, Frost will be after him too.

Yes, Bell knows all that... but he still has no idea what he has just gotten himself into. things are not quite what they seem to him - and that will prove to be a fatal mistake in deed.

Review

I have read the novel, and then I've sat back for a while before writing this review. Why? To try and resolve my feelings about the book. Do I like it? Do I hate it? Is it well written? Is it badly written? My final conclusion ambivalence!

Whilst the character of Bell was a welcome change in direction for Cussler, I wasn't sure about all the chasing around the country in the first two books. In The Spy, the running around the country was toned down and the quality of the book improved. Here it is just one big chase.

The premise is good, have a race across America, with a bad guy out for revenge, and a mysterious 3rd party looking to sabotage the race to ensure a winner, who will do anything to make sure the 'right' person wins. So why didn't I enjoy the book?

Possibly one of the reasons, is that I don't like Bell, he comes across as an arrogant self important, pompous twit, who everyone is to look up to. An unpleasant circumstance, you almost hope that Frost will finish him off!

There is quite a lot of repetition in the story, after all the basic sequence is the planes are made ready, take off, fly to next destination (with or without incident) and land, and the necessity for the description of the smell of the varnish, put on to treat the wings at every turn was rather unnecessary in my view.

Whilst the story seems to be technically proficient, there is little emotion, in some ways it reads more like a technical manual than a crime thriller. Bell seems to suffer from this, as we no little more about him than we did in the first novel, which is why I've started to dislike him. The heroine is also questionable, and there is a hint of something dark in her, but it is never explored. Remember she started the train of events leading to the supposed death of her lover. When she later finds out the truth about her lover she continues on as before, not someone you would normally root for in a fight.

Harry Frost is supposed to be a big crime boss, yet from the way he tackles killing his wife, it seems almost impossible that he could have gotten above the rank of thug, he's that badly organised. This seems to be a problem throughout the book, a pilot dies, or a passerby is killed caught in crossfire and it is all treated rather glibly.

Perhaps that is why the book and the story don't quite work, the human side of the story is largely brushed aside, you have two dimensional characters that you don't really worry about. If they die they die, yet you should feel some sorrow if they're a good guy, and some relief if they're on the dark side. All of the characters lack the 'something' which exists with Dirk Pitt, who you really care about. Pitt has the same gung ho attitude to life as Bell, but the difference is that Pitt is basically a nice guy, who doesn't pull his punches when necessary. Bell is quite happy to kill or maim seemingly with little conscience.

So to finalise, an OK book, which leaves me neither keen to get rid of nor read again. Bell needs to become more human, and we need to have a localised story , with out all the flitting about which is a feature of this series, and seems to me to be just padding.

Previous	index	next