Customer Reviews

The Wrecker (Wheeler Hardcover)

5 star:		(68)
4 star:		(23)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

The first posted review can be difficult to follow sometimes, but I think I'm safe here. All the salient plot points have already been covered for you so here are a few things I would like to add: Once you get past the fact that this novel, like the other previous ones, is not a Dirk Pitt adventure, you can open yourself up to enjoy it. We first met "Isaac" Bell in "The Chase" (11/07). He is a special agent that works for the Van Dorn Detective Agency (very similar to the Pinkertons). Cussler& Scott use the frame format of storytelling, taking the reader back in time to recount the story's events. Much like Watson in his adventures with Sherlock Holmes.

The action is fast paced as previously stated and the language is archaic at times, which makes it more of a period piece. I think this character will resonate with readers. I thoroughly enjoyed "The Wrecker." Give this dynamo a look.

We first met Isaac Bell in "The Chase" in an exciting historical thriller. Clive Cussler has another page turner hit with "The Wrecker." In the early years of the 20th Century the fastest and most "modern" method of travel was by rail and the fastest communication was via the telegraph. Clive Cussler sweeps us back to these times in which Isaac Bell must contend with a dangerous, greedy man, intent upon causing the destruction of the most successful railroad mogul of the era. If successful the evil doer will be able to take over the enterprise and become immensely wealthy and famous. He acts ruthlessly to keep his identity hidden. Isaac Bell, the Van Dorne Detective Agencies top agent is placed on the case and the contest is joined. Though the reader soon knows the identity of the killer/scoundrel Isaac and his fellow agents must overcome limitations of travel and information lag times to assemble enough facts to finally unmask the villain. (For older readers one is reminded of the Saturday Movie Serial as audience members yelled at the screen to warn the hero, as the bad guy lurked in the shadows and the unknowing hero fell into a diabolical trap.) The action is fast, furious and fun as you spend time in the early 1900's traveling the rails, fighting nature, hob nobbing with industry titans as well as rubbing elbows with scum of the earth out to do in the good guys. I highly recommend this novel. Cussler is at the top of his game and we Cussler fans benefit.

The second book in the Isaac Bell proves that good things come to those who wait.

What we liked in the first Isaac Bell series are in this book plus more.

Isaac Bell is self-confident without being arrogant, intelligent and methodically. He isn't afraid to face a foe in a gunfight or to admit that he is in love with a beautiful woman even when a spectacular beautiful young woman who happens to be the daughter of the rich client is making a play for him.

I give the authors credit on how they had their character handle the situation. Bell was able to diffuse the situation quickly and firmly without being hurtful. No insulting their own character by letting him fall into the women's trap. The character is far too intelligent not to recognize what was happening.

When faced with a man who has caused large financial losses as well as a number of deaths, he gathers around him an army of investigators. Accountants, lawyers, experts in their field all needed to bring the villain to ground. All without letting his ego get in the way.

Secondary characters are interesting, intelligent and realistic. No inept sidekick thrown in to add what some authors consider humor.

Scenes are well thought out and there is a plenty of action that flows easily from one scene to the next. Technical and historical material and details are skillfully handled. You learn without having the material shoved down your throat or bogging down the flow of the story.

The book seamlessly blends fiction and real events into a fantastic action story.

One little comment concerning other reviews, they refer to the writing style as being stilted. I personally had no problems with the writing style. Since the story takes in the early 1900's, a more modern style would have been inappropriate.

My thanks go out to both Clive Cussler and Justin Scott for a terrific read. I'm looking forward to the next book in the series.
Scott Brick what can I say; when you have the best reader narrating your book, it's only better.

Lastly, for all of us who have ties to Jersey City, NJ we thank you.

Competence. There's a certain comfort to the reliability that a reader can count on from any Clive Cussler novel: the hero is competent and will succeed by the end; the villain is evil and can be a worthy adversary; the action moves quickly and usually involves incredible feats by many characters. A new novel, The Wrecker, fits the formula well, and will entertain those readers who can overlook the doggedness of the formula. Protagonist Isaac Bell (reprised from the earlier novel, The Chase) is the son of a prominent New England banker who works as a private detective. In The Wrecker, Bell is hired by the head of the Southern Pacific Railroad following a number of events that destroyed rail lines and facilities. While readers know the identity of The Wrecker early on, it takes a while for Bell to put all the puzzle pieces together in a mad scramble across the country and back several times. Along the way, there's murder, deception, engineering feats, and loads of competence. Cussler fans will want more novels featuring Isaac Bell. Readers looking for a few hours of entertainment and who have a willingness to overlook the clumsiness of a formula novel, are likely to enjoy The Wrecker.

Rating: Three-star (Recommended)

this book flowed so well to me. I was surprised and kind of disappointed to get to the end so quick. I truly enjoyed reading this book. Much more believable than "Spartan Gold", which was a complete disappointment. Isaac Bell and his fellow detectives from the Van Dorn Detective Agency once again save the day. A few surprises along the way. Was a good book to visualize along with. Could almost see the steam coming from between the pages.

I admit to being a fan of Cliive Cussler. His plots are typically outrageous, his characters border on the cartoonish and it generally requires a willful suspension of belief to finish one of his books (frequently written with a co-author). Believe it or not, none of the foregoing is criticism. It is simply the truth of the matter.

Cussler's saving grace is that his novels are filled with history, facts and action. The plotting is always intricate and the heroes find themselves up against really smart bad guys and always prove themselves to be a bit smarter, sometimes with only a second to spare.

In "The Chase", Cussler introduced a new hero: Issac Bell of the Van Dorn Detective Agency. Do I have to tell you that Issac Bell is a master detective? A late 19th / early 20th Century detective whose work brings him in close contact with the technological marvel of the day, the railroad with its great engineering feat, such as massive locomotives, civil engineering triumphs, exploitation of the telegraph and so on.

"The Chase" was exciting and, if you have the time and interest, should be read before "The Wrecker". It is not a necessity, but I think it will add to your enjoyment of the character.

Issac Bell is handsome, of course, brilliant, well-educated (Yale), wealthy (his father controls a big bank), at home in high society, a master of disguise, skilled with all manner of weapons - but, with due credit to Cussler and co-author Justin Scott, not overdrawn. (Cussler has a real talent for taking his heroes to the edge of being comic book caricatures, but not passing over the boundary.)

Bell is called in to stop a series of possible attacks against the Southern Pacific Railroad. It isn't immediately clear if a series of incidents are simply accidents or the results of attacks by union agitators, anarchists or other enemies of capitalism, the railroads in general or the Southern Pacific and its President Osgood Hennessy. The speculation quickly resolves itself in a hunt for "The Wrecker", an individual of considerable talent who enlists various confederates for his criminal enterprise - and then kills them so he cannot be identified. The Wrecker also seems to have planned his moves well in advance of their execution. But The Wrecker's motives remain obscure.

The reader learns early on who The Wrecker is and much of the suspense comes from Bell's meticulous pursuit of the villain, with his every move.

The plot twists and turns on every page and the action is unrelenting. Often Cussler lets his plotting and action get out of hand: not this time.

The story opens, as did "The Chase", with Issac Bell in his later years taking care of one more detail in the case. A single flashback takes us into the main story, set this time in 1907.

I don't like to disclose any details of a story for fear of depriving the reader of any pleasure - and in "The Wrecker", the pleasure of unfolding details is immense.

Cussler and Scott keep throwing new logs on the fire. It is possible that they could have reduced the number of dilemmas facing our hero by one or two, but the reality is the authors do not fail the reader: the action is non-stop and, ultimately, very satisfying.

There's some light romance along the way which does not get in the way of the story. There's a lot of history about the railroads and their development, which adds to the story. Ultimately, "The Wrecker" is pure adventure, a great thriller. I think it is Cussler's best work and, as far as I can tell, I've read all his books.

This one takes the cake.

Jerry

As does the cover photo of an exploding locomotive atop a wooden railroad trestle, authors Clive Cussler and Justin Scott snatch the reader's attention from chapter one. Cussler arguably is best known for RAISE THE TITANIC! (the third in his series of Dirk Pitt novels), and he and co-author Scott (whose pseudonyms include Paul Garrison) specialize in transportation-themed novels, many of which are set at sea. This is the second in the Isaac Bell historical thriller series, following THE CHASE. Both are set shortly after the turn of the 20th century, a time of the Great San Francisco Earthquake and collapsing banks with the Panic of 1907, in which stocks lost half their value.

As the recession in 2001 was complicated by terrorist attacks on 9/11, the 1907 economic chaos in this time-travel educational thriller is compounded by a mysterious saboteur dubbed the Wrecker, a diabolical man who recruits hobos to create havoc for the railroads, the main form of transportation a century ago. But the Wrecker thinks "he [is] no radical. He [is] no destroyer. He [is] a builder." However, the vile Wrecker sets explosives so that "only the full weight of a locomotive could trigger the detonator." After blasts sabotage Southern Pacific Railroad, the Van Dorn Detective Agency dispatches its best: Isaac Bell.

In 1907 --- a year when thousands died in train-related accidents --- a New York Times article quoted Central Railroad's W.C. Brown's denunciation of public criticism of railroads as being "a menace to national economy." That year also marked the end of "robber barons" such as Edward Henry Harriman and James J. Hill, who took over so many railroads that various stock market panics ensued. The stage is set with references to 1903's The Great Train Robbery, but it's a certain senator who, like his counterparts today, uses his influence to get more ill-gotten gains than in the film.

In this research-rich installment, Southern Pacific Railroad's president, Osgood Hennessy, epitomizes the term "robber baron." Intent on controlling all railroads, Osgood's crowning glory is a massive trestle being constructed over Oregon's Cascade Canyon, a slightly smaller version of its better known Arizona sibling. Osgood wagers all on the Cascade Canyon Bridge that will reduce transportation time through rugged mountains --- and channel all transportation of goods on his railroad. Osgood's bridge can be compared to the Panama Canal in its relevance to speeding transportation of goods. And that bridge is like a magnet, attracting the Wrecker to achieve the pinnacle of his diabolical career.

Purposely stilted dialogue of the period derails the plot at times, and train speeds at 127 MPH raise eyebrows in disbelief. Curiously, Ma Bell (no relation to Isaac) completes a phone call from Oakland to L.A. quicker than traditional telegraphs of the time: "Telephone the Los Angeles office. Tell them I said to get to the wreck and don't let anyone touch anything. Including the police." Isaac and other Van Dorn detectives look down on mere police as though they're all Keystone Kops.

Although the Wrecker seems always a step ahead of him, Isaac uses old-fashioned cunning to deduce where he will strike next. Without Google or cell phones and the only twitter being from birds, Isaac successfully puts himself into the mind of the Wrecker. With the Wrecker's identity pegged midway through, this is more of a "whydunit" than a "whodunit." And the authors are more powerful than a locomotive in their ability to transport readers back a century with this equally powerful vehicle.

--- Reviewed by L. Dean Murphy

Clive Cussler has teamed with Justin Scott to bring back Isaac Bell, a turn of the twentieth century detective who works for the Van Dorn Detective Agency, a company renowned for always getting their man. In this case it's master-mind known as "The Wrecker", a man who seems determined to bring the Southern Pacific Railroad to its knees and possible demise with his canny ability to cause tunnel cave-ins and deadly train derailments. Isaac Bell is brought in to track down "The Wrecker" and bring him to justice. With Bell are a cast of characters straight out of a hard-boiled detective novel of that era. "The Wrecker" is well paced and never skips a beat as Bell traverses the country foiling the "The Wrecker" and nearly getting killed in the process. My only complaint with this book is that the identity of "The Wrecker" is revealed about half way through the book, though only to the reader. With an assortment of suspects I believe that the identity of "The Wrecker" could have been left to the very end of the book. Otherwise, a clever and well written suspense novel.

Clive Cussler has done it again! He has written a book that you can not put down. Though it is a period piece, early 1900's, it does give you the flavor of what was making America the great nation that she is. Many twists and turns to the plot keep you on the edge of your seat waiting for the next turn of the page. Bravo!

Clive Cussler and his stable of co-writers are prolific producers of content. The large Dirk Pitt fan base that has grown over the past 20 years used to have to wait two years for the next installment, however, we now get to enjoy at least four or five novels each year. The Wrecker is the second in this series, featuring a stylish and extremely capable detective, Isaac Bell, who like Pitt before him, charms all women he encounters. Cussler and Justin Scott use a different formula to the other three series of novels with a writing style that reflects the early 1900s setting. It took me a little while to get used to this "period-style" but was soon enjoying it.

Bell is a detective on the trail of a very clever assailant, The Wrecker, who seeks to destroy the Southern Pacific Railroad Corporation and it's owner, Osgood Hennessy. The Wrecker, whose true identity is revealed quite early in the novel, traverses the country a number of times to commit heinous assaults on various railways, hotly pursued by Bell and the other detectives of the Van Dorn Agency.

The storyline is smart with plenty of action and suspense for all Cussler fans. Bell is further developed as the old fashioned hero, chivalrous, fearless, with a passion for detail (ala Sherlock Holmes). His relationship with his fiance, Marion Morgan, is a delight to read, they being besotted in their affection for each other.

This is a very enjoyable read. A tad too long I think, they could have cut out one of two of the railroad incidents as this became a little monotonous.

I would recommend it for all Cussler fans, but read The Chase first, if you haven't done so already.