You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by cornerofmadness
Riptide by Douglas Preston
3.0
Not my usual cuppa but I almost always enjoy Preston and Child's books. This one is suspense rather than mystery and it's lifted whole cloth from the Curse of Oak Island. If you're not familiar with that real life pirate treasure hunt, it's just that, a supposed pirate treasure burial so complex we can't find it even told (but the reality show will keep dragging on for you.)
Way back in the day Red Ned Ockham buried his treasure off the coast of Maine on an island owned by Dr. Malin Hatch's family in the modern day. Ockham had kidnapped a famous architect to help him and this thing is filled with dangerous traps not the least of which is the water pit. As children, Malin and his brother were playing there when they weren't meant to, leaving his brother dead and Malin saddled with a life of guilt.
He gets into this with Neidelman, a captain with deep pockets and a scientifically advanced crew mostly to see if he can find out answers about his brother more so than the two billion dollars of treasure including St. Michael's sword. We have computer experts, fussy cryptographers, and Bonterre, the archaeologist. On the other side we have Clay, a preacher who hates the idea of the search of gold and is trying to radicalize the townspeople against the search. And then there's Malin's ex.
So obviously most of this is about the search for treasure, mounting paranoia and eventually lots of action/adventure at the end. I enjoyed it well enough but on the other hand I'm not all that wowed. it's not one I'll remember for a long time. It was a nice escape but not much more.
Way back in the day Red Ned Ockham buried his treasure off the coast of Maine on an island owned by Dr. Malin Hatch's family in the modern day. Ockham had kidnapped a famous architect to help him and this thing is filled with dangerous traps not the least of which is the water pit. As children, Malin and his brother were playing there when they weren't meant to, leaving his brother dead and Malin saddled with a life of guilt.
He gets into this with Neidelman, a captain with deep pockets and a scientifically advanced crew mostly to see if he can find out answers about his brother more so than the two billion dollars of treasure including St. Michael's sword. We have computer experts, fussy cryptographers, and Bonterre, the archaeologist. On the other side we have Clay, a preacher who hates the idea of the search of gold and is trying to radicalize the townspeople against the search. And then there's Malin's ex.
So obviously most of this is about the search for treasure, mounting paranoia and eventually lots of action/adventure at the end. I enjoyed it well enough but on the other hand I'm not all that wowed. it's not one I'll remember for a long time. It was a nice escape but not much more.