I've enjoyed many of Cussler's novels, starting with Raise the Titanic! (even though the real-life drama of the discovery of the wreck rendered that plot even less possible than it was {wry grin}). I picked up this paperback edition of one of the earlier books in the series after finding out that it features the Empress of Ireland, a ship that sank in 1914 with almost as much loss of life as the Titanic, but that tends to be much less well-known. (I read about it in Dark Descent.)

I enjoyed this book, though at times it was laughably over the top - but then, that's a key element of the series. (Want gadgets that can do just about anything, even after having been crashed into and/or blown up? We got 'em!) The series also adores the "find a sunken ship" - or, for variety, a sunken railroad train or other transportation item - and this appeals to me very much, even though it's quite common for the story to center on the search for the object only to have it turn out that the McGuffin de jour wasn't actually there.

This story's perhaps more improbable than most. Its premise? Back in 1914 the UK and the US brokered a jaw-dropping treaty that would change the geopolitical structure of the Western world. But by some strange coincidence, both copies of the treaty were lost: one in the sinking of the Empress of Ireland, and another on a train that fell from a damaged bridge into a deep, sandy riverbed. Modern-day politics have made it imperative, from the US point of view, to retrieve the documents - if possible, and if they've survived their long immersions; and equally imperative from the UK point of view that they not be found. Cue the dueling agents, Dirk Pitt and co. for the US (OK, he's more of a super-salvage specialist than a secret agent, but he has all the skills of the latter) and "Brian Shaw" for the UK (it's his alias-in-retirement, but all the hints about him when he's first introduced made it clear that he's meant to be none other than... uh, well, perhaps you'd rather work it out yourself, so I'll blank it out; select if you don't mind mini-spoilers: James Bond! His name's even brought up near the end of the book for those who missed the hints.

Another character is a Lt. Commander in the Navy, one Heidi Milligan, whose researches kick off much of the plot - and whose attraction to Dirk Pitt and to Brian Shaw results in some of the later plot-points as well. [Pitt always has a love interest in any given book, though they seldom last. In this book, Cussler took the novel approach of allowing the British agent to be deemed the better lover by Milligan, at least in a more-than-a-one-night-stand kind of way - it's rare to see the hero have to take second place, but it makes sense in context {wry grin}.]

Lots of enjoyable explore-the-deeps details, with lots of mayhem as well, some involving some seriously-nasty individuals, and some involving two sets of "good guys" who happen to be on opposite sides at the moment - I found that rather heart-wrenching.

The overall plot was convoluted enough that I didn't bother to follow it, though some aspects of it seemed reasonable (for the genre, anyway). A bit too much reliance on last-minute arrivals, last-ditch rescues, "enemy mine" scenes between the rival good guys, and more than one instance of "didn't find the body" (and we all know what THAT means).

Some very effective scenes near the end, though on reflection I'm not sure that's how things should have looked under the circumstances - still, it made for a dramatic climax, and if anyone ever films this it'd look marvelous on screen.

[There's a TV Tropes page on the Dirk Pitt books, with comments on many of the titles including this one.]

I plan to leave this book in or near Firebox BBQ at around 6:30, when stopping by to have dinner with friends. Hope the finder enjoys the book! [It's supposed to rain, so I'll look for a sheltered window ledge or shelf inside.]

*** Released as part of the 2012 Chills & Spills release challenge. The theme for July includes "water", and there's an awful lot of it in this story! ***