Most helpful customer reviews
|
|
5.0 out of 5 stars
John McKinna, aka "John Mannock"...Great writer!, Aug 5 2004
John McKinna, who also writes WWII thrillers under the pen name "John Mannock", really produced a winner with this first novel in his seagoing thriller trilogy featuring intrepid, globe-trotting commercial diver Ben Gannon. Superior writing and a dry sense of humor are what distinguish CRASH DIVE and its two companion novels, TIGER REEF and SHARK LAKE. As a recreational diver myself, I found McKinna's technical knowledge (he was a commercial deep-sea diver himself for nearly 20 years) and characterizations (he's a genuinely gifted writer--more like Patrick O'Brian or Nicholas Monsarrat than some pulp hack) to be far better than those of, say, the ubiquitous Clive Cussler. McKinna's hero Ben Gannon is far more believable than Cussler's Dirk Pitt, who is something of a superman in skin-tight black rubber. Gannon is a regular guy with an uncommon amount of resourcefulness and adaptability, which makes him a good stand-in for the reader: you can easily imagine yourself in the dilemmas Gannon encounters, and enjoy beating the odds with him. McKinna's CRASH DIVE anticipated the terrorist attack on America by several years, the target in the novel being an offshore oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. Prescient. The other two Gannon novels examine, with thrilling dramatic license, modern piracy in the Java Sea (TIGER REEF) and the violent dissolution of a small African country in the throes of revolution (SHARK LAKE). All are excellent reading. In addition, McKinna's IRON COFFIN (also available on Amazon), written under the pen name "John Mannock", is a superb WWII novel about a damaged German U-boat that occupied the Top Fifty Paperback Bestseller's List in the U.S. in the winter of 2004. If you want to read an excellent modern author's debut books, you can't go wrong with the Ben Gannon diving series. McKinna/"Mannock" is one of the very best.
|
|
|
3.0 out of 5 stars
Dive Into Adventure, Jun 28 2003
By A Customer
This book is about a tough guy in a tough situation. It's a great summer read...nothing fancy...just a fun adventure to get involved in. If you like books about the ocean, diving and intrigue, this is one to add to your list. I plan on reading all the Ben Gannon books when I get a chance.
|
|
|
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Cut Above The Rest of the Pack., Dec 23 2002
I hope every person with an interest in diving discovers John McKinna's excellent, realistic adventure trilogy about commercial oilfield diver Ben Gannon. This novel, "Crash Dive", is the first in the series, and the first of the 3 that I read. I was really impressed with the author's storytelling skills, his wry way of expressing himself, and his in-depth knowledge of offshore diving. Not surprising since he's a veteran commercial diver himself. "Crash Dive" is amazingly prophetic--written in 1999, it's about an Arab terrorist attack on an American oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. Fast-paced, full of black humor (like the other Ben Gannon books, "Tiger Reef" and "Shark Lake", and surprisingly heart-tugging for this type of novel...you really like the characters. In fact, along with twists, turns, and pacing, the expert characterization is what really makes John McKinna's books stand out, in my opinion. They really grab you and pull you in, and you hate it when they're over. I highly recommend "Crash Dive" and the other two Ben Gannon novels--as an adventure writer, author McKinna is definitely a cut above the rest of the pack.
|
|
|
Most recent customer reviews
|
