Skeleton Coast is a book with a lot of plots. There of course is danger in solving all of the problems. The least of the troubles was discovering the ship eight miles off of the coast that had bags of uncut diamonds. Four stars were awarded to this book. It is a good story with all of the loose ends completed at the end of the book. ( )

Fast paced and well organized story intertwining sub-plots of an elite crew of mercenaries, ecoterrorism and a long-lost ship of treasure. ( )

Entered on Sept 27th, 2019. read after Dark Watch. I loved it! ( )

As usual there is a prologue which sets up the plot. Story begins in 1896 with the theft of diamonds from a Herero king in what is now known as Botswania by 5 Brits. Before the ship HMS Rove could leave the coast, a huge storm raged and lasted for days causing the coastline to change dramatically. Sand literally buried the ship.
Present Day: Story begins in Switzerland with Merrick speaking with Susan who shows him her invention: a substance that can make water turn into gel which could help with oil spills. At the same time, Captain Juan Cabrillo and the Corporation are trading *bugged* arms for diamonds to the Congo rebels.
At times I really needed a flow sheet to keep everything in order. I actually had to look up a cheat sheet to understand exactly what was happening. The story does come full circle and it does make sense in the end, but again, I was glad I had the cheat sheet.
Husband and I listened to the audio version on a recent trip. I am a huge Cussler fan while this was the first book of Cussler's husband had encountered. ( )

You are always in for a rip roaring adventure when you read one of the books in The Oregon Files series. The fourth book, Skeleton Coast, starts out with an interesting prologue set in 1896 where four Englishmen are fleeing across the Kalahari Desert with stolen diamonds. They reach the HMS Rove just as the Herero warriors reach them, and what happens next is anyone's guess. Coming forward to present time, we meet the intrepid crew of the Oregon, a high tech ship disguised as a decrepit tramp steamer. They have been on a mission to deliver tagged weapons to Congolese rebels so the CIA can track them. When they hear about the kidnapping of Geoffrey Merrick, a famous industrialist, they decide to stick around for awhile.

If you've never read an Oregon Files book, let me briefly explain that the crew is a “corporation” that takes high paying jobs while disguising their intelligence gathering resources. Ex CIA agent, Juan Cabrillo, and his crew do anything and everything they can to complete their mission. Each and every character is interesting, especially Juan, and this book focuses a lot on him and some of the things that have happened to him in his past.

This series is like going to an action movie. There are multiple plots including environments terrorism, global warming and stolen diamonds. I thought it was an entertaining story with non stop action, maybe too much for some people.
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