Hatteras Blue [Mass Market Paperback]

David Poyer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 15, 1992

In a graveyard of the Atlantic, a treacherous sercret has been buried...until now.

A U-boat went down in 1945, and now, more than 40 years later, the bodies of the three crewmen have surfaced near Hatteras Island. But their chilling reappearance has unleashed a tide of powerful forces--Nazis with a ruthless plan to corner the South American drug market, and a shadowy figure with his own dangerous agenda.

We ex-Navy SEAL salvage diver Tiller Galloway probes beneath the surface, he finds himself face-to-face with a killer in a gut-wrenching firefight that cilmaxes hundreds of feet below sea level.

Spilling with underwater adventure that will leave you gasping for air, bestselling author David Poyer writes gripping undersea thrillers in the spellbinding tradition of Clive Cussler and John D. MacDonald.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The background of this thriller is more compelling than the story itself. Set in and off Cape Hatteras, the novel opens with the sinking of a German U-boat in the waning days of WW II. Then it jumps to the present, where we meet Tiller Galloway, a heavy-drinking, down-and-out salvage diver. Though he's a Vietnam veteran from a distinguished naval family, Galloway is now out on parole for drug smuggling, monitored by attractive woman parole officer Bernie Hirsch. Early on, Galloway is approached by Richard Keyes, a mysterious man who wants to find the sunken U-boat because he thinks it holds a cargo of gold the Nazis were hauling to South America. As the captain of a boat owned by his cousin, Galloway is again lured by the big kill. Hirsch doesn't trust Keyes (or Galloway's ability to stay out of trouble) so she tails along on the salvaging mission. The author's obvious love for the world of deep-sea diving is passionately conveyed. But Poyer ( The Med ) reveals too much information too soon in large blocky chunks. And though there's a switch at the end, the choppy plotting defuses much of the tension, leaving the best parts of the book underwater, floating like air bubbles.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Poyer, who lived in Tidewater Virginia for five years, has used this experience to good advantage for the setting of this novel. Tiller Galloway, son of a Navy destroyer captain and paroled after a jail term for drug running, scrapes together a living doing salvage work from a battered PT boat. He accepts a commission from Richard Keyes to locate and salvage a World War II U-boat off Cape Hatteras. But Keyes is not what he seems, and other mysterious characters add to the confusion as Tiller tries to reconcile past and present in very deep waters. The climax is bloody, confusing, and chaotic, and not very satisfying. The best parts of the book rely on Poyer's intimate knowledge of Albermarle Sound, the rhythms of speech and weather peculiar to coastal North Carolina, and the shipwreck legends near those treacherous waters. Just as important, Tiller and his friends are lively, interesting, and believable. He's a natural for a series.
- Louise A. Merriam, L.E. Phillips Memorial P.L., Eau Claire, Wis.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks (March 15, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312927495
• ISBN-13: 978-0312927493
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,413,899 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tiller Galloway Smokes Dirk Pitt Any Day, June 14, 2000

By 

Larry Lozuk (Dallas, TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hatteras Blue (Mass Market Paperback)

An author that actually knows something about diving is rare. One of that category that can actually spin a yarn is a gem.

This is the best diving book I've read. It's mostly technically accurate, and the highly fallible leading man is more believable than your usual Roger Ramjet hero type.

I highly recommend the entire series.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Exciting book. The best of Poyer's "Blue" books., January 25, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Hatteras Blue (Mass Market Paperback)

I read Poyer's Blue books out of sequence. I read Lousiana Blue first, then Bahamas Blue, The Sea Down Under, and finally Hatteras Blue. I enjoy Tiller Galloway's character, though not as much as Clive Cussler's Dirk Pitt.

Although Hatteras Blue does not delve into the technical aspects of diving nearly as deep (no pun intended) as the other books I found it to be more believeable and entertaining.

I discovered Poyer by mistake when someone put a copy of China Sea in my mailbox at work. I find Tiller Galloway in the "Blue" books and W.T. Halvorsen in the "Hemlock County" books to be more interesting than Dan Lenson in the modern Navy books.

I mentioned Clive Cussler's Dirk Pitt character earlier. If you like a great adventure book thats a ball to read get a Clive Cussler book. After you've read everything from Cussler sit down with a Poyer book. They are not the quite the same but I find Poyer to be informative and entertaining.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars You can't have it all, November 6, 1999

By 

S. D. Owens "travellers" (Fort Smith AR) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hatteras Blue (Mass Market Paperback)

I guess it's just too much to ask to want a novel with a great setting, a plot centered around diving, and a little plausibility. Mr. Poyer doesn't develop his characters much, and misses a great chance to describe the book's setting. He also dumbs down descriptions of diving and diving related maladies. (I think if readers can hang with Michael Crichton and Tom Clancy they could handle an accurate description of nitrogen narcosis). Plausibility is the last straw, though. Nobody could buy this plot.