Clive Cussler & Jack DuBrul Dark Watch

Dark Watch

Clive Cussler & Jack DuBrul

Berkley, Nov 2005, $16.00, 368 pp.

ISBN: 0425205592

Sea Captain Juan Cabrillo and his dangerous crew of the Oregon normally work special mission impossible oceanic tasks for the west with his team's latest assignment to sabotage the Star. As usual success means greater wealth like $10 million courtesy of his Uncle Sam's "black" budget and more difficult requests.

Juan is a bit surprised when Hiroshi Katsui, representing a consortium of Japanese shipping entrepreneurs, hires their services to stop the increasingly bold and deadly activities of pirates working Asiatic waters from the Sea of Japan to the South China Sea. Juan plans a strategy to deal with a conglomeration of pirates that he assumes has merged under the control of one bold leader. However, as the Oregon crew learns more, Juan realizes that this case of brazen piracy is much more than just this obvious piratical front. He and the Oregonians may be in too deep to pull off this caper as the opponents have heavy sponsors from around the globe using pirates to increase and hide the lucrative international slave trade.

DARK WATCH, the latest Juan Cabrillo modern day high seas adventure, like its predecessors (see GOLDEN BUDDHA and SACRED STONE), is action-packed and never slows down until the final payout. The story line feels more like a comic book than a novel in nature, but is fun to follow as Juan and crew go from the frying pan to the fire to even hotter scenarios. Though not quite the Pitts, fans of the Oregon Files will enjoy this latest lighthearted caper against North Koreans (who else on the seas?) and an international consortium of "moguls" who use murder as a business tool to enhance their thriving slave operations.

Harriet Klausner