In The Chase, Clive Cussler introduced an electrifying new hero, the tall, lean, no-nonsense detective Isaac Bell, who, driven by his sense of justice, travels early-twentieth-century America pursuing thieves and killers . . . and sometimes criminals much worse.
It is 1907, a year of financial panic and labor unrest. Train wrecks, fires, and explosions sabotage the Southern Pacific Railroad's Cascades express line and, desperate, the railroad hires the fabled Van Dorn Detective Agency. Van Dorn sends in his best man, and Bell quickly discovers that a mysterious saboteur haunts the hobo jungles of the West, a man known as the Wrecker, who recruits accomplices from the down-and-out to attack the railroad, and then kills them afterward. The Wrecker traverses the vast spaces of the American West as if he had wings, striking wherever he pleases, causing untold damage and loss of human life. Who is he? What does he want? Is he a striker? An anarchist? A revolutionary determined to displace the privileged few? A criminal mastermind engineering some as yet unexplained scheme?
Whoever he is, whatever his motives, the Wrecker knows how to create maximum havoc, and Bell senses that he is far from done; that, in fact, the Wrecker is building up to a grand act unlike anything he has committed before. If Bell doesn't stop him in time, more than a railroad could be at risk; it could be the future of the entire country.
Filled with intricate plotting and dazzling set pieces, The Wrecker is one of the most entertaining thrillers in years.
Review:
I said in my review of The Chase that this series had alot of potential. Unfortunately, The Chase did not live up to it. However, knowing the series' potential I was willing to give it a second chance by reading The Wrecker. Would Cussler learn from his mistakes in The Chase? Would the addition of Justin Scott as coauthor add the twists, turns, and intensity that The Chase lacked? Would the Isaac Bell series finally live up to its potential? These are the questions I was asking myself coming into reading the The Wrecker...
...And it is my great pleasure to announce that the answer to every one of those questions was a resounding YES!!! I loved The Wrecker! Cussler (and Scott) kept everything that was good about The Chase and made sure the book didn't become derailed (pardon the excessive use of train analogies, but I can't help myself lol XD) by the issues of its predecessor. What was so good about it? Well...
First and foremost, the pacing and intensity (which, of course, go hand in hand) were both amazing. Once this book gets up to speed it flies faster than a speeding bullet train, and the intensity does nothing but build until it is so thick and heavy that one couldn't cut it with a tie-cutter's saw or break it with a rail-spiker's hammer. Once one reaches the two-thirds mark, the book locks you into a roller-coaster thrill ride that lasts right up to the finish. From that two-thirds point on, the book is literally impossible to put down (believe me - I ended up staying up WAAAYYY too late just so I could finish it). The endings to these rising actions were also substantially more satisfying in this book than in the previous one, and this book actually had some plot twists in it!
Secondly, the historical detail was once again spot on and made it so that one really felt like they were living in the time. It isn't completely romanticized as being a more the "innocent" time we seem to perceive the 1900s as. Rather, the authors put forward just the right mix of grit and glamour to be realistic without being overly vulgar or depressing, and to portray the time as one of industrial development and discovery, which it really was.
All that said, the book still has a few minor issues. The villain's identity is revealed to the reader far too early, for one. Thankfully though, Bell does not realize it himself until the climax, which keeps the book fairly intense (this of course, results in the reader wanting to scream at Bell multiple times when he doesn't figure it out at first (this all being, of course, due to dramatic irony)). Secondly, the book's exposition (beginning/opening/introduction) could have been done a lot better. Third, the victim in this case (pun not intended) is a railroad tycoon, and since those men were known as "Robber Barons" for a reason, it makes it a little hard to sympathize with him at times. Finally, the characters are, as always, larger-than-life and/or one dimensional, but that issue is hardly noticeable compared to how glaring it was in The Chase.
It is also worth mentioning that unlike books in other Cussler series, there are several carryover plot details from The Chase that show up in The Wrecker so it is indeed better for the former (despite it's sub-par nature) to be read first.
I also must say that I have found that these books do not fit the detective mystery novel genre as much as they do the crime thriller genre, but since I am a big fan of the extra suspense that comes with that shift, I do not mind in the slightest. The Chase tried to be the former, but suffered an identity crisis and ended up somewhere in an unhappy middle. The Wrecker on the other hand, lands on a solid foundation in the latter.
As I said before, I loved this book. I found it to be just as good as, if not the slightest bit better than, the books of the Fargo Adventures. Had the issues listed above been fixed in the slightest, I would've definitely given it a 5 star rating. Very highly recommended to fans of historical fiction, action/adventure, mystery, and suspense. There is a saying that the best suspense novels are like runaway freight trains - smashing through everything that blocks their path and making it so all you can do is hold on for dear life and hope it stays on the tracks. This is one heckuva freight train of a novel, so jump on and get ready for the ride of your life!
4.5/5 stars
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