Customer Reviews

The Chase

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The always entertaining Clive Cussler is badly in need of a good editor.

I was totally distracted in my enjoyment of this book by the numerous
errors.
For example , on pg 237-38 he calls Curtis by the name Carter 5 times
On page 333 the boy Stuart becomes Warren. A .45 changes to .38.
But most disconcerting was the timeline of the story - it was totally wacky.
The Rhyolite and Bisbee robberies take place in summer of 1906, the meeting
between Bell and Van Dorn occurs in September of 1906, and then all of a sudden it is April 1906. This made no sense.
It also seems like Cussler uses a lot of names in the book that are only
meaningful to him and his inner circle.
The story was good, but everything else distracted from it.

I've always been a fan of Clive Cussler's Dirk Pitt and NUMA Files adventures, and THE CHASE is the same kind of story. There's a larger-than-life hero who faces impossible challenges and is viciously injured but gets right up. There are fast cars, a discreet liaison with a beautiful woman, loyal associates, and big transportation (in this case trains rather than boats). Oh, and a sociopathic villain.

All that's to the good. Of course we also have writing from the Hardy Boys school of literature and fantastic plot elements. That's no surprise and if you're a fan, you just read around it. Here's an example of an overloaded sentence from the beginning of Chapter 15:

"Cromwell's chauffeur drove the 1906 Rolls-Royce Brougham, made by the London coach maker Barker, with its six-cylinder, thirty-horsepower engine, from the garage to the front of the palatial Nob Hill mansion Cromwell had designed himself and constructed from white marble blocks cut and hauled by railroad from a quarry in Colorado."

Hmmm ... anyone got a red pencil?

The hero is one Isaac Bell, an independently wealthy private detective. The villain is a bank robber-murderer known as "the Butcher Bandit." Bell, through hot detective work and breathtaking good luck, gets on the trail of the Bandit by page 168 (of 404). The rest of the book -- the better half -- involves a lot of fast driving, a locomotive race, some shooting and robbing, and the San Francisco earthquake of 1906. Oh, and of course a satisfactory ending.

THE CHASE does have a structural device that kicks it up a notch. While the story takes place in 1906, the book opens and closes with a 1950 underwater salvage operation in a large Montana lake. This is reminiscent of James Cameron's 1997 movie TITANIC, and was a very nice touch.

Cussler's at his best with the action scenes, and THE CHASE has some epic action. The train scenes really are playing to his strength. The story is according to formula but the formula works: familiar and therefore safe style, combined with wild action. This is a very satisfactory offering from Cussler and if you like this kind of book, you'll probably enjoy it as much as I did.

Linda Bulger, 2008

Typical Clive Cussler book, well written, lots of drama, hard book to put down once you start reading it, keeps you on edge.

Really enjoyed the book. Isaac Bell is a great character and I love the setting back in the early 1900's.

An entertaining book but not very deep and full of cliches:

THE BEGINNING: the first 200 pages of this book were very good. It's 1906 and someone is successfully robbing banks and murdering all witnesses in order to ensure their identity remains a secret. The case is given to a Sherlock Holmes-like fellow who manages to find a few small leads. The first pages really sucked me in and I thought I had stumbled upon a new historical fiction author! I mean who doesn't like an unstoppable criminal vs. a genius detective coupled with the 1906 setting.

THE MIDDLE & THE END: the book fell apart. I honestly doubt it if the author could have used any more cliches, coincidences, or corniness. The character development basically stopped and the mystery/thriller aspect turned into a childish game of cat & mouse. Maybe it was because the first chapters were so good, I felt as though the book was letting me down.

THAT BEING SAID, ONCE IT WAS FINISHED: I did appreciate the easiness of the read. It was light and entertaining. I definitely had to dumb down my expectations because I was hoping for something like Eye of the Needle (Ken Follet). What I got was Eye of the Needle plus Louis L'Amour plus a writing level for age 14.

TO CONCLUDE: I give this book a 3 and would consider reading the next one in the series. It was a fun read, just don't get your hopes up that it will be something more because it definitely isn't something more.

A decent effort Clive. 3 about 5.

It still reads well, and contains the quintessential Cussler hallmarks: historical mystery, fast pace, action, adventure, romance, witty interaction, a daring, devil-may-care romantic hero, and a worthy adversary. As with Pitt and Austin, one also might lament that the character of Isaac Bell is too perfect. However, this is fiction and many of us really do like our heroes larger than life.

Set in the early days of the 1900s, this chase story is of an almost too perfect hero, Bell who is rich, handsome, smarter than the average gumshoe and likes fast cars and trains. Oh and a little off page pre-marital relations with a comely lass. The evil opponent is a banker with a murderous way of increasing his bank's assets. Around and around they go. It's 1906, the stage is set in San Francisco, there is some shaking and a shooting. A watery climax and everything wraps up. NUMA doesn't appear. Cussler likes his antique machinery and describes the cars, trains and boats in great detail. The writing is weak, was this an early effort heretofore shelved until the time was write?

"I again saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift and the battle is not to the warriors, and neither is bread to the wise nor wealth to the discerning nor favor to men of ability; for time and chance overtake them all." -- Ecclesiastes 9:11

If you like stories about catching master crooks, of the sort that Sherlock Holmes stalked, The Chase offers much to delight you. Just at the beginning of the 20th century, someone has been robbing banks crammed with payrolls, killing all the witnesses, and disappearing without leaving any clues behind. Patrician Isaac Bell is pressed into the hunt. Before long, he knows who's doing the crimes but lacks a way to get a conviction. From there, it's mano a mano was the hunter and the hunted seek to outwit one another. Before the story ends, fate steps in to reshuffle the deck and lead to the wildest train race in any fiction that I've read.

A hundred years ago, crime was pretty straightforward. You stuck a gun in someone's face and took what you wanted. Now, the bigger crimes involve fooling people to willingly give you their money with nary a weapon in sight. The current style of crime makes for more interesting reading if you like mysteries. Clive Cussler decides to do what the old television series did and imagine what if with a master criminal with diabolical plans to take over the American West. Isaac Bell will remind you of James West, except for his city slicker background in Boston.

The story has a negative tone though in that the master mind is a sociopath who kills with no compunction. This guy has got to be stopped.

I was impressed by how the story combined an understanding of finance with many good perspectives on various Western locales. It's a most unusual and entertaining combination.

Unfortunately, the book's end is a little disappointing compared to many of the surprises early in the story.

Watch out where you deposit your money!

I own all the Pitt and Austin books, and am a confessed Cussler fan back to day one. This new book is set in the western US and San Francisco in 1906 and is a fast paced and highly enjoyable read. Bell is a wonderful character and while the book is complete as it is, I certainly hope to see more of the adventures of Isaac Bell. Great read.

This one is a bit different then the typical Dick Pitt adventure but still a lot of fun. This one starts out with the recovery of an old steam locomotive from the bottom of a lake in the 1950's and in it are three dead men from years earlier. The book then flashes back to the old west and the 24 month crime spree of the bank robber the Butcher Bandit. This guy is really bad! He has killed many men and woman and even children. After the butcher Is private investigator Isaac Bell who has been hired by the US government to put an end to the butcher's evil run. This is kind of a mixture of Cussler's typical thriller adventure with an old west dime novel, and it all makes for a page turning, enjoyable read.