Clive Cussler - 'The Chase'

[John Ashworth]

Generally I find Clive Cussler to be a poor writer, despite his best-seller status. His characters and dialogue are very wooden.

However the attraction of this book is its railway theme, and it's a good detective story to boot. It starts with a railroad engine being raised from the bed of a lake in 1950, and immediately jumps back to 1906, to a thrilling tale of murder and robbery.

It would have benefited from some proof reading. In one chapter the assistant to our hero detective has a name change for a couple of pages from Curtis to Carter, and there's a discontinuity in the dates of the main detective story, which begins in September 1906 and then somehow ends in April 1906. The author has gone to some trouble to include railroad terms and practices and doesn't do a bad job, although there are small things which just don't quite feel right.

But all in all, a good relaxing read.

I have a paperback copy bought at Exclusive Books (using my free Fanatics voucher) - Penguin, ISBN 978 0 718 15280 2

[Dylan Knott]

excellent, find most of his books a good read!