Christine Kling

Clive Cussler and Dan Brown move over!

This is a rip-roaring sailing adventure set in the Caribbean islands.
A young woman, Riley, retired from the Marine Corp, sails the Caribbean while she tries to forget the loss of her fellow marines in a tragic bombing. A diving archeologist, Cole, whose absentee father mails him coded letters about a WWII French submarine sends him on a quest to see if the clues will help him realize the prize.

The submarine, which may or may not be is sitting intact show more under water somewhere near the Caribbean islands of Dominica and Guadeloupe, has attracted the interest of pirates, a secret society that is desperate to keep the sub at the bottom of the Caribbean sea, and a psychotic killer whose lust for power among the hidden elite is almost as frightening as his desire to possess and then destroy Riley.

That all of the above are connected by the French submarine gets the heart pounding in this fast-paced adventure story.
Somebody needs to make a movie outta this book!

RP Dahlke, A Dangerous Harbor, a mermaid, a bald parrot and the love of her life show less

A surprisingly good thriller,if somewhat predictable. We’ve got our heroine who is independent and capable, but not a superwoman; she actually shows weakness when appropriate, but doesn’t dissolve into tears at every sign of trouble. We’ve got our hero who is tough, brawny, brainy and sensitive. We’ve got our villain who is evil, manipulative, devious and twisted. We’ve got a couple of sidekicks who exist just to help out our hero and heroine and provide some reflected insight into show more their personalities. We’ve got sexual tension and confusion which (of course) is resolved with the appropriate scenes. We’ve got action, nicely paced and convincingly dire. We’ve got a plot interwoven by two primary timelines; one featuring the action aboard the Soucourf just before it sank, and the other featuring the action of our hero in trying to locate the wreck and solve the mystery that consumed his father until his untimely death. Nice exotic location, too. We’ve got codes, secrets, murders and treasure. We’ve got a shadowy organization with hooks at all levels of government and commerce; uncovering their agents and means along with the main mystery adds a lot of interest and who doesn’t love a good conspiracy theory now and then?

Decent writing and turns of phrase. Nice imagery scattered about. Enough telegraphing and dropped hints to make the reader engaged and feel smart at the same time. Not too much drippy romance, but some. And an open-ending that leaves you wishing for a sequel. Come on Ms. Kling, you know you want to. show less

This book did not work for me at all. My complaints are many:

First, there is a complete lack of character development. I had no idea who these character were or what drove their behavior. We have a lot of viewpoint characters, which likely contributes to this problem. We don't go deep into any character, but instead jump endlessly from one to another.

The characters' behavior often felt contrived, silly, and unrealistic. I don't want to give spoilers, so I'll just say that Riley's reactions show more to certain situations had me rolling my eyes. The "bad guys" were cardboard stereotypes with a network of similar stereotypical bad guys.

The plot was overly complicated, convoluted, and often far too convenient. There were a lot of near captures, escapes, running away, and chasing. Whenever one lost another, some other character would step in and conveniently give away the new location for no plausible reason. This didn't take place within a small town or even large city, but across countries and oceans. Yet there seemed no safe place to hide.

This is really two stories in one, with a back-and-forth switch to an event unraveling during the war in 1945. This historical aspect is really the only part I enjoyed. That being said, I think it was too much. While I respect the author's ambition, this was not simple flashbacks in order to provide history. This was a complete novel on its own, with its own characters, motivations, and plot. Even though the issues from the past entered into the present day story, the transitions felt disjointed, as if I was reading a historical novel at one moment and a modern adventure the next.

I have no doubt that the author put a lot of time and effort into researching this story. And the narrative style of her writing is well done and easy to read. I just could not find anything more than that to appreciate about this book. show less

When Seychelle Sullivan, Captain of the salvage boat Gorda, steps aboard the Top Ten, a multi-million dollar yacht in response to a distress call she finds no one alive aboard. There is a body, the body of the young woman who had placed the distress call. There is a gun. But there is no sign of the Captain, Neal Garrett. Saychelle prevents the yacht from grounding and tows it to the coast guard station. She knows she is entitled to a sizable salvage fee. When she receives a small offering of show more $15K rather than the $25-30K she feels she earned, she is insulted and refuses to accept the money. This refusal leads to death and evil.

Suspenseful read. Believable characters and plot. show less