Date first published	26 March 2009
ISBN Number	0 718 15444 4
Page Count	448 h/b
h/b= hardback : p/b= paperback

Storyline

Over five novels, Clive Cussler has brought readers into the world of the Oregon, a seemingly dilapidated ship packed with sophisticated equipment, and captained by the rakish, one-legged Juan Cabrillo. And now the Oregon and its crew face their biggest challenge yet.

Corsairs are pirates, and pirates come in many different varieties. There are the pirates who fought off the Barbary Coast in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the contemporary pirates who infest the waters of Africa and Asia and the pirates . . . who look like something else.

When the U. S. Secretary of State’s plane crashes while bringing her to a summit meeting in Libya, the CIA, distrusting the Libyans, hire Cabrillo to search for her, and the misgivings are well founded. The crew locates the plane – but the Secretary of State has vanished. It turns out Libya’s new foreign minister has other plans for the conference, ones Cabrillo cannot let happen.

What does it all have to do with a 200-year-old naval battle, and the centuries-old Islamic scrolls that the Libyans seem so determined to find? The answers will lead him Cabrillo full circle into history and into another pitched battle on the sea, this time against Islamic terrorists, and with the fate of nations resting on its outcome.

Review

This series seems to have found its feet, we have the basic premise of a private spy ship, run by a bunch of tough ex military/spy types. They are guns for hire, but not to just anyone. The first few novels suffered because of too many crew members, but now the books focus on just a few, or is it I have just got used to all the names?

The adventures remind me very much of the early Dirk Pitt adventures, plenty of action, with little room for feelings, and sex. Just how I like a novel. That is not to say women don't feature - they do but on equal terms with the other crew members. No screaming fainting dames here.

The book breaks away from the general run of stories, where basically everything goes according to plan - which gets tedious. Here the whole operation is compromised right from the outset, and when they try to do the right thing, it turns out to be wrong with near disastrous consequences for one of the crew men. The reason why the project is doomed takes quite a long time to be revealed. The first indicator that something is wrong, seems initially to be bad luck - and could have meant it all falling apart, if the security police had not decided to try and get rich.

As the story progresses, it soon becomes clear that it is not simply a terrorist strategy, but it appears that the government is also heavily involved. The book has quite a high body count for a Cussler story, and adds quite a grim edge to the whole story.

It is also nice to have the Oregon being damaged. Quite a few stories have involved battles, with the ship being undamaged apart from some minor chips to the paint work. This story is completely different, with the ship suffering significant damage during the battle with a Libyan frigate.

If I have a reservation about the story, it is the happy ending for Hali Kasim, who makes a miraculous recovery from what in real life would probably be a terminal gunshot. So we get away with no crew being killed from the ship. This is quite amazing when you consider that at different times the crew have a serious fight with a terrorist ambush, including a fight with a Hind helicopter, and the previous mention of the battle with the frigate, where weapons are being used within a few feet of each other.

There is also the blood test results at the end which seems to be a bit of silliness, which doesn't really detract from the story.

I have grown to like Cabrillo. I see him as a pirate in a white suit. He has his super bionic leg, which he uses to get out of a lot of scrapes, but hey, James Bond has his gadgets! The leg now seems to have stabilised, with the level of equipment, now set at a gun and a knife, and the leg being used as a club. I'm glad that it has now been defined, and is not being fitted with every gadget possible, as it keeps it in the realm of plausibility.

The only other minor gripe is the ease with which the Peace process in the Middle East is sorted. If only it were that simple, there would be a few less grieving wives, husbands and children!

Overall it is a good read, the story is fast and slick, and you don't have too much time to think about the elements that are a bit silly. This series at present far out strips the NUMA Files stories, which I still don't think have escaped from the shadow of the original Pitt novels. Austin and Zavala are just too like Dirk and Giordino. Cabrillo and his cohorts, have no direct comparisons, and are now safely set up in there own little universe.

I can't wait for the next one.

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