Review - The Striker

The Striker by Clive Cussler

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


A pretty good book.  Cussler takes a break from his typical underwater adventures and ventures into historical fiction.  This is not his first using the Isaac Bell characters and probably won't be the last.  It's interesting to learn about the relationships and contentions that existed between miners and mine owners.  Then to add to that, there are politicians, police officers, private detectives, miners families, media, railroads, and politicians to add into the story.  Cussler writes a great bad guy character along with a great good guy character. 


The plot (from Goodreads.com): It is 1902, and a bright, inexperienced young man named Isaac Bell, only two years out of his apprenticeship at the Van Dorn Detective Agency, has an urgent message for his boss. Hired to hunt for radical unionist saboteurs in the coal mines, he is witness to a terrible accident that makes him think that something else is going on, that provocateurs are at work and bigger stakes are in play.

Little does he know just how big they are. Given exactly one week to prove his case, Bell quickly finds himself pitted against two of the most ruthless opponents he has ever known, men of staggering ambition and cold-bloodedness . . . who are not about to let some wet-behind-the-ears detective stand in their way.

Now I am working on Deadly Stakes by J. A. Jance.