Shock Wave
by Clive Cussler
Simon
& Schuster, 1996
Price on dust jacket $25.00
Number line: 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
ISBN # 0-684-80297-X
From the dust jacket, "In Shock Wave, Dirk Pitt®
meets the most intriguing and sinister villain of his adventurous
and legendary career - a billionaire Australian diamond
king with three beautiful Amazon daughters - in a conflict
that is waged above and below the sea for the survival of
vast numbers of sea creatures an more than a million human
beings. In 1856, a British clipper ship sinks after a storm
while transporting convicts to an Australian penal colony.
After horrible carnage on a raft, the pitiful survivors,
among them Betsy Fletcher and Jess Dorsett, are washed up
on a solitary tropical island, where they discover an immense
source of diamonds and found a powerful and wealthy dynasty.
One hundred forty years later, Maeve Fletcher, on of their
descendants, is stranded on an island in Antarctica with
a party of passengers after their cruise ship seemingly
abandons them. Dirk Pitt, on an expedition to find the source
of a deadly plague that is killing dolphins and seals in
the Weddell Sea, finds Maeve and the passengers and rescues
them from death. When Pitt later uncovers the cause of the
plague, he discovers that Maeve's father, Arthur Dorsett,
and her two sisters are responsible because of their diamond-mining
technology. A deadly race develops to stop Dorsett from
continuing his murderous mining operations and to head off
a disaster that will kill millions. Pitt's struggle to foil
Dorsett's ruthless plan to destroy the market for diamonds
and thus gain a monopoly of his own takes him from harrowing
adventures off the west coast of Canada to being cast adrift
in the Tasman Sea in a small boat with his good friend Al
Giordino and the lovely Maeve Dorsett. Through trial by
storms, hunger, and thirst, Pitt's inventive genius and
relentless drive to survive eventually bring him to a final,
spine-chilling confrontation with Arthur Dorsett himself,
at the very heart of his domain, with the clock ticking
against devastating tragedy - a confrontation in which Pitt
gains triumph, but at the cost of great personal loss, as
he discovers a lethal surprise that will shock and astonish
the reader. Only Clive Cussler - the Grandmaster of Adventure
- could have written a story this suspenseful."
One
of the easiest Clive Cussler novels to find for a reasonable
price, in MINT condition.
