Clive Cussler takes a break from his increasingly derivative Dirk Pitt adventures to tackle a standalone novel in THE CHASE. Perhaps he should do it more often.
It begins in 1950, with the discovery of a locomotive at the bottom of a Montana lake. Once pulled from the depths, three dead bodies are discovered inside. A bystander knows exactly who they are, but how did they get there? The next 400 pages will fill in the blanks, jumping back about 45 years to Arizona. There, a mysterious man many presume to be a derelict robs a bank and kills three defensive people, before making his escape via choo-choo.
This bank job is not unique, with many other joints in the Western United States being hit in similar fashion, i.e. leaving behind dead bodies and no trace of the culprit. For this M.O., one paper dubs him “The Butcher Bandit.”
Called in by the feds to investigate this morass is Isaac Bell, the saintly dick of the Van Dorn Detective Agency. He has the benefit of a banking background, yet chose to make law enforcement his profession. And since he rarely misses his target – Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid being among the rare exceptions – he’s the perfect guy for the gig.
About a quarter of the way in, the master of disguise known as The Butcher Bandit is revealed, and his identity is probably the most original thing THE CHASE has going for it. For the first 75 pages or so, it’s rather boring, and even confusing, but picks up considerable steam once the interstate game of pursuit promised by the title actually gets underway.
From there, Cussler’s work is a passably engaging piece of populist fiction – a throwback to simpler days when good was Good was evil was Evil. Many elements from Cussler’s playbook are brought in to satisfy readers – gunplay, hardware, even a natural disaster – but the move of naming a character (even one in passing) after himself smacks of a runaway ego in need of a check.
One could do much worse than THE CHASE. While I wouldn’t recommend rushing right out to snap it up – unless you’re a pure-blood Cussler fan – I also wouldn’t tell you to exchange it right away if it appears under your Christmas tree this season. No new ground is broken, but its old-timey appeal may satisfy the thirst of historical adventure-seekers. –Rod Lott
Related posts:
- Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer
- Raising Atlantis
- Crusader Gold
- The Face of Fear
- BOOK WHORE >> 8.30.05
