Russell BlakeReseñas

Adventure

Mystery

The last Cussler book I read started similarly, with Vikings whose ship gets stranded on the North American coast, but this one was a better book. It's not my favorite (I like the Dirk Pitt stories better), but I do appreciate that the Fargo stories have a husband-wife team, the Fargos, who are the heroes, so there is at least one woman in the story who is not just a sex interest. This story ties together several fascinating places, and since the Fargos are archaeologists, there is a lot of real history, geography and science mixed in with the fiction, always one of my favorite things about Cussler's books.

Okay, I am biased as I love dogs. This was such an amazing, heart warming story that any true dog lover will enjoy, made even more special if your four legged kids are snuggled up with you whilst you are reading this.

Fatal book #1

This is an oldie I finally picked up from a long very long list of books I downloaded years ago. “Fatal Exchange” was published in 2011; definitely this book was overdue for my attention.

There are two storylines in this thriller that despite how different they are they work together well. First we follow a case of counterfeiting American hundred bills linked to the country of Myanmar where someone decided to take their cut to the US and buy valuable antiques with it. When Myanmar finance minister realizes it and sends a pair of killers on the trail of the money to get it back. No need for me to tell you how gruesome these hired hands do to their victims....the story describe this vividly. The author does not mince words.

The second story involves Tess Gideon, a bike messenger in New York. When someone starts to murder female bike messengers in a very gruesome way and at the same time she becomes embroiled in the counterfeiting scheme now she also becomes a target. Then comes to the forefront, Ron Stanford, a detective in the NYPD, to save the day and bring to justice a murderer who kills more and more quickly.

We have a very large cast of characters all with their own point of view including the serial killer as well as the Asian ones. No worries following this story the tempo stays steady, the language is clear and the narration makes every word come alive. I particularly like the short scenes that quickly change from character to character it made everything move fast. Not a dull moment in this gritty edge of your seat thriller.

Overall a quality collection of short stories. The Melissa Miller piece was a standout, and I'll now read one of her full length books. I've now learned that my wife was already a fan of Miller's, and has one or two of her books on our Kindles already.

Fast-paced, with well developed characters I thoroughly enjoyed this action / crime thriller. It is more gruesome than I usually read and I wouldn't recommend it for the faint-hearted, but if you love fast-paced action with two interwoven story lines, this is well worth the read.

Blake has his playbook planned out for a true action adventure. The action is non stop and the adrenaline rush is off the charts. I had already read Jet: Vengeance or Book 3 so I knew the style before starting...years ago I read a few Clive Cussler novels (Blake has co-written with him) and the style is there from start to finish; a stylish protagonist who does what they have to so the job gets done. Heart-pounding action all the way through.
This is a prequel though, and prequels are not always as polished...not to worry, Blake has created a world with a long term protagonist with style and flash long before doing the prequel...so that practiced ease shows clearly here. 3 stars only because it is light beach reading. If you love that style, it is full on 5 stars.

The Eye of Heaven is a Fargo adventure wherein the Fargos literally travel all over the world on their adventures. It is interesting to learn about the Toltec Empire and their relationship to the Vikings. There are good guys, bad guys and unexpected bad guys. The ending leaves an opening for another adventure. Only 3 1/2 stars were awarded to this book. It was not one of Clive Cussler's better stories.½

Blake writes action stories. In this case, about a beautiful assassin who "takes no prisoners". She has recently left her role with help from her handler with Mossad only to discover that trying to hide from the rich and ruthless powerful people of the world is easier said than done. Together with a fairly obvious plot twist, Blake keeps you going from crisis to crisis until the end. What will result is still up for grabs, leaves the reader in suspense as he has now grown the series to some 18 volumes or more. Blake has co-written a few books with Clive Cussler, so you will have a reasonable idea of how the story will proceed.

When Maya find herself running after an unexpected attack, one question kept on playing in her mind: "Who had betrayed her?"

I had this book for so long on my Kindle that I have completely forgotten about it. After cleaning and rearranging the content, I thought to read it next.
Why I have waited so long, I cannot say, but I am glad I finally made the time.
This fast-paced story takes you from South America, to Isreal to Belize at breakneck speed while you, as the reader, are thrown into the throes of a world of espionage and mistrust.

"The rest of it—the killing, the personal danger, the flirting with death while dancing on a razor’s edge—was immaterial. And part of her hated it, she realized—a sudden revelation that explained why she felt so empty inside even after a successful operation. Somewhere deep down in her core, she hated herself and those who had made her this way, who had created a cold, calculating killing machine for their own selfish purposes."

The transformation of Maya to Jet was quite exceptional. The one moment is she a shopkeeper, the next a person who knows her way around weapons and the most dangerous of enemies.

“You know what this is? Of course you do. This is a soldering iron. I just plugged it in. Within thirty seconds it will get hot enough to light a cigarette. I’m going to start with your head and work my way down your torso. I’m not bluffing, and you’ll be very sorry if you decide to test me.

As you track through the countries, trying to keep up, you learn also about her softer side. Once she found David, her long-lost lover, you learn more about this twenty-eight-year-old. With only one option left, she had to trust one man... A daring game of survival in a very cruel world of espionage where second chances are only for other people.

A great read and book I can definitely recommend.

I liked this one a lot more than most because it wasn't some typical bad guy out to thwart the Fargos and steal the treasure first. It's just some rich CEO working with rebels to nationalize the Solomon Islands that happens to be getting in the way of the Fargos - which doesn't sound like much but it was a nice change. I also liked one of the new characters introduced, a Russian archaeologist who enlists the Fargos help when he discovers what appears to be a sunken city. The treasure hunt leads the team through several points in history - not just ancient times, which is interesting. A breath of fresh air in a series where the plots start to become stale. Genuinely excited for the next in the series.

The Eye of Heaven takes readers back to Mexico, although this time the Fargos aren't looking for Mayan cities they are looking for evidence of Vikings. After they stumble on a pristinely preserved Viking ship carrying Toltec items - the Fargos know that everything they know about the Vikings is about to change. They actually made it to North America far before Christopher Columbus and had trade routes. What if they can find more proof and maybe the tomb of Quetzalcoatl? I enjoyed that the villain was a little different than normal - it was someone who wasn't after a specific treasure but was just after any treasure that the Fargos would find. Fun and implausible - I will keep reading this series!

Always a good adventure with the Fargos. E bad guys get what's coming and truth and justice prevail. No sex or swearing which make these books refreshing.

I seldom read any of the FARGO Series books by Clive Cussler. But I had to purchase and read this book, because it is set in the Solomon Islands, the same country where I lived for 3 years as a teenager while my parents were "missionaries". I hated every minute of my time there.

Anyway, this novel is about Leonid, a Russian Archaeologist, who is investigating rumours and legends of an ancient sunken city in the Solomon islands. He tries to arrange for the locals to help him to set up a camp and a dive site, but they refuse to help, because of the curse. They beleive that many centuries ago the city was destroyed and sunk because the gods were angry.

Leonid calls in the Fargos to help and eventually a dive boat from Australia is hired and begins its voyage to the Solomons.

Once the boat arrives, the diving can begin and sure enough an old sunken city is discovered.

This goes hand in hand with stories from world war 2 when the japanese occupied the islands.

Leonid continues to dive and the Fargos begin to investigate the Japanese side of the story, with the help of their wonderful research assistant Selma who is based back in San Diego.

Eventually the Fargos discover a legend of Japanese cruelty, slaves and removal of treasure from the cursed sunken city to some caves behind a waterfall all happening during WW2.

They set out to explore the island using vague references and eventually find the waterfall and proof of the Japanese cruelty. They also eventually discover the treasure that was removed from the sunken city.

This book was interesting but there were a lot of tropes used, some tropes were repeated and some events that should have been covered, were skipped over entirely....

The story was interesting, but because I have not lived there for 40 years, I am unable to confirm or say how accurate the culture details are today - especially since I can only read newspaper reports about the civil war, I never lived through it.

I would liked to have seen more details mentioned, especially the history. There was NO mention do the country becoming independent in 1978 and not one mention of Ironbottom sound - the large area of water between Guadalcanal and Tulagi islands, where so many japanese and american ships were sunk during WW2. I give this 3 stars.

Did Cussler even visit the islands? Did he watch any videos on youtube?

Ugh, this was kinda painful. There's so much macho bullshit here it was tough to slog through. There's some redeemable elements and intruding scenery but... ugh

Sam and Remi are investigating ancient ruins in Guadalcanal believed to host great riches when they become involved in a power grab to enrich some by causing the natives to boot foreign investment. Overall a good if somewhat slow to build read.

Artemus (Jim) Black is a Hollywood P.I. who dresses from the forties. He takes a case working for a director because the paparazzi following him starting getting killed off.
First in a series, an enjoyable read with the interplay between the characters.

Fun Read and another treasure found by the Fargos. Library book

I wrote a longer review, but got logged out while it was sitting in browser, and it got lost, sigh. So to summarize:

4-star detective story, minus 1 star for annoying narrator/protagonist with the emotional development of a 16 year-old, which is just painful in a 40-something guy. Good enough that I'll read the next one, though.

I do like the Cussler book formula with starting a book with an event that had happened centuries ago, then bringing it all together in the present.
This book has the Fargos' coming in contact with the notorious Janus who has given Sam and Remi trouble before. He is unscrupulous when it comes to treasure. The Fargos deny Janus from stealing a shipload of treasure off the coast of Spain. From there, adventure leads Sam and Remi to Baffin Island and a Viking long boat that has been encased in ice for centuries. This find leads them to Mexico City , Cuba and Laos. The trip to Laos is to retrieve an old friend Lazlo to help them decipher a code. The goal is to find the Eye of Heaven (emerald).

I have not read any of the series, so this prequel was all new to me. Essentially the making of an Israeli female special agent, with lots of action. Fast read.

I'm a bit disappointed. I started reading Clive Cussler's Oregon Files and Dirk Pitt and like them both.

In The Solomon Curse, the sunken temple exploration with reference to history was the best part of the book. It got me excited! The villain was sort of unexpected however I don't see how it was necessary to have that guy in Sydney in the story.

The worst part of the book for me was the conversation that seems unnatural between Sam and Remi including her team. Their jokes aren't even funny. I see that there are great reviews for this book and fans of this series. Too bad I didn't truly enjoy it and wanted to just finish it.

Might have to get me some more of these

Might have to get me some more of these