Cussler's "Corsair" a Fast-Paced Thriller

I haven’t had the opportunity to read a Clive Cussler book since the nonfiction Sea Hunters books. I’d forgotten what a fun ride they offer. In Corsair, written with Jack Du Brule, an aircraft carrying the U.S. Secretary of State disappears somewhere in the Libyan desert on the eve of a major Middle East peace conference. When the plane is found, the secretary’s body is missing. It soon becomes apparent the diplomat’s plane was waylaid in flight, the secretary removed, and the aircraft purposefully crashed into a desert mountain with the remaining crew onboard.

Discovering how all this was done, and where the secretary was taken to, is the job given to Captain Juan Cabrillo and the crew of the Oregon. Cabrillo is a retired CIA operative and his vessel, though appearing to be a broken down rust bucket of a freighter, is actually a high tech warship in disguise, a la the Q ships of WWI.

The ensuing adventure is part Indiana Jones, part James Bond, and part Master and Commander. There is hardly a moment of rest in these pages. Corsair is definitely a fast paced and enjoyable thumb-sucking, page-turning adventure thriller.