Book Review: Spartan Gold
New York Times bestselling author Clive Cussler launches a fifth parallel action series with the publication of Spartan Gold, co-authored by up and coming novelist Grant Blackwood.
Referred to as “Fargo Adventures,” the new series is, as the name suggests, based on the adventures of the Fargos, a married couple by the names of Sam and Remi.
Independently wealthy, the Fargos have devoted their lives to their obsessive passion for archeological treasure hunting, and they do not shy away from any obstacles to find what they are looking for.
The Fargo Adventures feature a new set of characters and a new approach in the form of archeological treasure hunting. (New in terms of being the main focus.) But as with any Cussler-novel, we can still expect a lot of the action to take place in and around water, as well as plenty of exotic cars, foods and drinks.
Through Spartan Gold we follow Sam and Remi Fargo as they pursue a trail of clues left behind by Napoleon Bonaparte on the back of wine-bottle labels from his lost wine cellar. Not only are the clues written as riddles but they are also in code, which they must first crack.
Needless to say, the unraveling of this mystery also includes adversaries. A former Soviet freedom fighter named Bondaruk, turned ruthless Mafioso billionaire, sends a his hired help to interfere with the Fargos, first by trying to kill them, and later by taking advantage of their greater experience.
At the end of the trail await two ancient Greek statues of pure gold, which were looted from Greece by Persian conqueror Xerxes the Great. Bondaruk has discovered through genealogy research that he is a direct descendant of Xerxes, and believes the treasure is his rightful inheritance, never mind that is was stolen from Greece.
The wine-bottle trail leads Sam and Remi, as well as their adversaries, from a sunken German submarine in the Great Pocomoke Swamp, Maryland, to the Bahamas, through much or Europe, from Germany, France and Italy to Croatia and Ukraine: not necessarily in that order.
Spartan Gold is a solid, action-filled treasure hunting novel in the spirit of The Da Vinci Code. It is also distinctly a Clive Cussler novel with all of what that entails. Another guaranteed New York Times bestseller, in other words.
Britt Hellman lives in North Carolina with her husband and three sons. She runs her own copywriting business from home. Clive Cussler is a long time favorite author. Visit her dedicated Cussler site to order Spartan Gold or read her review of the most recent Dirk Pitt novel, Arctic Drift.
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