Book Review: The Chase by Clive Cussler

I saw it was Clive Cussler’s birthday today so I thought I’d share a review I wrote years and years ago for The Chase, the first book of his historical thriller/mystery series starring Isaac Bell, a private detective of considerable private means. So, here it is, from the archives:

A cold-blooded bank robber has had astounding success throughout the western states and the Van Dorn Detective Agency has been hired by the US Gov’t to stop him. Van Dorn sends their best — Detective Isaac Bell, an independently wealthy detective who is hyper-competent and whose intuitions are never wrong.

The story was, unfortunately, more predictable than I like. A little bloated too. Of course, you know early on that a train is a main focus for the story — and the fact it has this amazing cover with a train at the bottom of a lake is also pretty cool, but … Cussler left a lot of potential for suspense on the table, I felt. Even with the built-in ticking time bomb realizing a large part of the story is set in the spring of 1906 … in San Francisco.

Also, I didn’t love the main character Isaac Bell. I’ve not read a lot of Clive Cussler’s books in my life — I know fans of his read dozens, but I’ve read a couple, and have listened to one or two on audio while road-tripping with my father. Bell is just like the other Cussler heroes, and frankly, I found him kind of dull. I liked the supporting cast (what little we see of them), even though I expected several of them to shout “Golly!” at any moment. The shifting…