Review: Black Wind by Clive & Dirk Cussler

Been off sick for a few days and managed to finish reading Black Wind by Clive Cussler and his son, Dirk. Just like most other Clive Cussler stories that I've read, it was difficult to put down once I got into it.

The "Black Wind" of the title refers to biological agents developed by the Japanese in World War II. The submarines carrying these agents were sunk towards the end of the war their deadly cargoes still intact. Of course this is where NUMA comes in by diving on the wrecks to retrieve the cargo.

The story primarily follows the exploits of Dirk Pitt Jr and his sister Summer, while the older Dirk Pitt (now head of NUMA) and Giordino take a rather back seat, although they still do feature in the story once or twice and have a big part towards the end. In fact, this is the only part of the story that I can find criticism with, all the way though the book, we follow in the footsteps of the younger Pitt, and at the end of the novel, Daddy comes to save the day again, which seemed somewhat to take some of the wind out of the younger man's sails.

The story was easier to follow than the last installment though, because when I read that the story skipped repeatedly between the two Pitt's and you needed several paragraph's worth of mind adjustment to work out which Pitt you were actually reading about.

I'm glad about one thing though, the whole bioagent plot was interesting, also introducing new departments within the real US government like homeland security, but moreso, pitting a Korean businessman as the "bad guy" made Cussler go where even President Bush fears to tread: North Korea.

Overall 9 out of 10