This was my first Clive Cussler book and certainly I started with one of the shortest of the Dirk Pitt series. I understand 'Mayday' is second in the series and came out in 1973.

This is a fun reading experience with all sorts of things happening in a rather confined area of the world. The plot twists and turns were a surprise and very well crafted. There's also a lot of history thrown in. The clever writing of the Pitt character is really well done. Especially when it comes to deducing who-did-what-to-whom. I'm usually pretty good at this, but I hardly saw more than one of the conclusions to wrap up the mystery. Since starting to read the Gardner Perry Mason series, i can tell Cussler is a fan in that he writes much of Pitt's introduction to his conclusions in a similar manner.

The question for me is will I go from a 237 page novel to one of the Pitt 600 page books. Have to wonder if he's stuffing all those extra pages with a lot more history, action...or what? :)