Title: The Chase, an Isaac Bell Detective Book
Author: Clive Cussler
why I read it: I was looking for a good audio book for my dad, and someone suggested Clive Cussler, specifically the Isaac Bell series. I checked it out of my library to preview it. It won’t work as an audio book for my dad. It’s fairly tame, but not quite tame enough to listen to with my mom and grandma, who are his traveling companions and will listen with him.
What I thought: I really enjoyed it, particularly as the type of fun fiction to read in the lazy days of summer. It’s very loosely based on the Pinkerton Agency and set at the beginning of the 20th century. It’s everything I want in a mindless summer read: good looking, rich, smart, and charming good guy, dastardly yet clever bad guy, major historical events woven into the plot, beautiful femme fatale, and smart and beautiful love interest. If the good guy was a little too good and the criminal a little too cliche, it was still an entertaining yarn, just right for poolside reading.
An adventure story rather than a mystery, this detective tale wasn’t anywhere as good as Dorothy Sayers, my personal gold standard of whodunits. Bell is a little like an American Lord Peter Wimsey: good looking, smart, and the American version of royalty — heir to a banking fortune. But it’s not as smart as Sayers mysteries, nor is there a counterpart to Bunter, and the love interest is nowhere as interesting as Harriet Vane. But it’s still a fun story, and of course, I’ve only read the first in the series. I’m sure the character and the bad guys will develop over time. I’ll be reading the rest of the Isaac Bell books and probably check out more of Cussler’s exciting tales.
Cussler himself is an interesting fellow. In addition to being a prolific writer, he’s also a marine archeologist who has found several shipwrecks.
Where you can get it: Here!(af) (And very likely at your local library.)
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