- Coppley, Jackson.
The Ocean Raiders.
Chevy Chase, MD: Contour Press, 2020.
ISBN 979-8-6443-4371-3.
-
Nicholas Foxe is back! After the rip-roaring adventure and
world-changing revelations of The Code
Hunters (April 2019), the wealthy adventurer
with degrees in archaeology and cryptography arrives in Venice
to visit an ambitious project by billionaire Nevin Dowd to save
the city from inundation by the sea, but mostly to visit
Christine Blake, who he hadn't seen for years since an affair
in Paris and who is now handling public relations for Dowd's project.
What he anticipates to be a pleasant interlude becomes deadly
serious when an attempt on his life is made immediately upon
his arrival in Venice. Narrowly escaping, and trying to discover
the motive, he learns that Dowd's team has discovered an
underwater structure that appears to have been built by
the same mysterious ancients who left the Tablet and the
Omni, from which Nick's associates are trying to extract
its knowledge. As Nick investigates further, it becomes clear
a ruthless adversary is seeking the secrets of the ancients and
willing to kill to obtain them. But who, and what is the
secret?
This is another superb adventure/thriller in which you'll be as
mystified as the protagonist by the identity of the villain
until almost the very end. There is a large cast of intriguing
and beautifully portrayed characters, and the story takes us to
interesting locations which are magnificently sketched. Action
abounds, and the conclusion is thoroughly satisfying, while
leaving abundant room for further adventures. You, like I,
will wish you had a friend like Guido Bartoli. The novel can be
read stand-alone, but you'll enjoy it more if you've first read
The Code Hunters, as you'll know the back-story of
the characters and events which set this adventure into motion.
The author kindly let me read a pre-publication manuscript of
this novel. The Kindle edition is free to
Kindle Unlimited subscribers.
June 2020 