Pacific Vortex [Paperback]

But as "a reader from Bordentown" has already pointed out, there's a big missing piece: in all the sequels, Cussler always refers to Pitt's ill-fated true love, Summer Moran . . . yet upon reading this book, there's no love scene with Dirk and Summer . . . so how the heck did Summer indeed turn about to be the father of his two kids? Perhaps it was an oversight on Cussler's part when he wrote the book, rookie error as he rushed to finish the manuscript, perhaps?

Fun stuff all the same!

Mr. Pitt - Dirk, not Brad - has starred in 17 of Cussler's swashbuckling adventure thrillers. (Cussler wrote "Pacific Vortex!" first, though it was not published until 1982 when Dirk Pitt was a fixture on the best seller's list. According to "Dirk Pitt Revealed," Cussler's 1998 concordance/encyclopedia of all things Dirk Pitt, "Pacific Vortex!" was initially deemed a weak first effort.) I was tempted to start with "Flood Tide" (1997) or "Atlantis Found" (1999), recent best sellers that are plentiful in paperback and in the remainder bins, but I like my genre novels to unfold in the order the author intended.

But enough exposition: Dirk Pitt is a star in "Pacific Vortex!," and a star for reasons Cussler never intended. He's rugged, debonair and likes the ladies, to be sure, but he screams 80s louder than a Boy George t-shirt. In the picturesque opening scene, Dirk Pitt is sunbathing in those brief white bathing trunks on a Hawaiian beach. As he naps, "[t]he hairy barrel chest that rose slightly with each intake of air, bore specks of sweat that rolled downward in snaillike trails and mingled with the sand." Oh, my. While I read, I alternately imagined him as Tom Selleck circa "Magnum, P.I." and Ben Stiller in "Starsky & Hutch," the real and the surreal - the yin and yang - versions of the 80s man.

The obvious comparison is James Bond, and it's a fair one. Dirk Pitt is comfortable schmoozing over cocktails. In the most unintentionally hilarious scene of the book, two women are literally fighting over Dirk while he suavely sips scotch. "The bruise beneath her right eye had begun the transformation from red to purple, and a small cut on her lower lip unleashed a few drops of blood that trickled down her chin, falling with precise accuracy down the cleavage between her breasts. Pitt still thought she was the most desirably woman he'd ever seen." Enough said. Oddly, there are no bow-chick-a-wow-wow scenes, but you know Dirk's gettin' some. The "sexy" scenes are usually of the slow-motion-body-shimmering-in-the-moonlight variety. Most are hysterical.

For six months the US government has been trying to find the Starbuck, a submarine lost in the Hawaiian (Pacific) vortex. This is an area similar to the well-known Bermuda Triangle. The submarine was lost on its maiden trial and possesses the most advanced equipment, in terms of nuclear capabilities, that the US has developed so far. The last known communication from the nuclear submarine came from captain Dupree, establishing that they were lost without possibilities of recovering themselves and giving the coordinates of their location. While in his holidays in the coast of Hawaii, Dirk finds a communications capsule from the Starbuck addressed to Admiral Hunter in Pearl Harbor. Thus, he is directly involved in the search for the submarine and starts a dangerous journey in which he will face different enemies, conspiracies and uncertainty about who to trust. He also meets a mysterious woman, Summer, who will rock his world and complicate matters further.

Cussler has created a very entertaining series, with a character that has an arrogant and pedantic side, but whom also shows his pure emotions and is true to his friends and ideals. This makes the Special Project Director of the National Underwater and Marine Agency a very likable character. This is a book that a reader can breeze through in a few hours making it an enjoyable way to spend a weekend's afternoon. I will surely read the next book in this series hoping for a similar experience.