The Smoking Lamp Literary Review...

Otherwise known as "What I'm reading now..."




Written by Clive Cussler and Craig Dirgo, the story is good enough to finish. If you are a Cussler fan, you'll enjoy it, but it won't be your favorite Cussler novel.

There is a lot of action involving an Ukrainian nuclear weapon stolen by Arabic extremists and a Western industrialist who wants revenge on the Arab world for his son's demise.

The story seems to be drug along by the plot instead of having a more organic flow. There is an almost mechanical feel to the story. I wished that the story were better constructed around the plot.

If you are looking to read your first Cussler book, don't read this one, but if you have been a fan for a long time and need a fix, this will do. But, it isn't a great book...it isn't a good book...it's a time filler.

The payoff was anticlimactic. The two unrelated threads finished up about a hundred pages apart. Add to this, the pacing and plotting seemed too cut and dried, and I came away with the feeling that there was never any real suspense. There was never any doubt that the protagonists were going to come through.

Sometimes, the hero should lose. Otherwise, the tension of the story is drained away and the plot seems more a series of events rather than a story.

I expected more. I wouldn't re-read this book.

I give it 2.5 out of 10 cigars.

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