'Pacific Vortex!' billed as 'Dirk Pitt's First Adventure'

A couple of days ago, I finished reading “Pacific Vortex!” by Clive Cussler and found the book to be enjoyable if maybe not as good as some of Cussler’s later books.

Published in 1983 and billed as “Dirk Pitt’s First Adventure,” this book was the sixth book published in Cussler’s famous Dirk Pitt series of novels. However, chronologically, it’s the first Dirk Pitt novel, with the events in the book having taken place before the events in “The Mediterranean Caper,” which was Cussler’s first novel, published in 1973.

“Pacific Vortex!” is classic Cussler and includes all of the ingredients that make his novels so successful: high adventure, cool characters, exotic locales, beautiful women and lots of action.

In this novel, Pitt becomes entangled in the search for a missing Navy submarine that’s disappeared in an uncharted part of the Pacific Ocean, where ships go missing much as they do in the infamous Bermuda Triangle. Pitt travels to this mysterious spot – the Pacific Vortex – and not only finds the missing sub, but much, much more. I’ll stop right there so as not to spoil the book for those of you who haven’t read it.

In the end, this book was fun to read, and I enjoyed scratching another of Cussler’s books off my reading list. So far, I’ve read four of his books: Pacific Vortex! (1983), Inca Gold (1994), Flood Tide (1997) and Sacred Stone (2004).

I have a long way to go if I’m going to read all of Cussler’s book. By my count, he’s published over 40 novels, not counting the two books that he’s got due out later this year and next year.

How many of Cussler’s books have you had a chance to read? What did you think about them? Which is your favorite? Let me know in the comments section below.