Night Probe

Well, this book was a timely reread. The entire plot is about Canada joining the US - although Cussler calls the conjoined nations the United States of Canada, which would undoubtedly cause President Chump’s remaining brain cell to combust.

Cussler’s formula has always been explicit - an historical mystery is the key to a present-day conspiracy, and Dirk Pitt is dragged into an investigation regarding one or the other, and so ends up resolving both. The novels are also set a decade or two ahead of when they were written, and often feature some sort of advanced tech.

Night Probe! opens with a provincial railway station robbery in 1914, which nets little and prevents the two station staff from halting an express train heading for a show more bridge brought down in a storm. On the train were millions of dollars of gold bullion, and a Canadian official with important documents. Coincidentally, around the same time, a passenger ship heading for Britain is sunk in the St Lawrence River. On board is a British official with important documents.

Commander Heidi Milligan, introduced in the previous book, is studying for a PhD in American History, and she stumbles across a reference to a treaty between the US and Great Britain signed in 1914. But she can find nothing else about the treaty. Meanwhile, the head of a Quebecois separatist organisation tries to assassinate the prime minister of Canada. Somehow, news of the treaty, copies of which were carried on the crashed train and sunken ship, reaches the ears of the UK government, and they send a retired MI6 agent to the US to ensure the documents are never found.

Pitt uses NUMA equipment to dive on the wreck in the St Lawrence and, despite attempted sabotage by the British and Quebecois, manages to retrieve a copy of the treaty. Unfortunately, it’s unreadable. So Pitt goes looking for the crashed train, but there’s no sign of the wreck in the river below the destroyed bridge. Pitt eventually figures out the location of the train, and finds the treaty.

Night Probe! was published in 1981. While Cussler got a lot wrong (in it the USSR still exists, for example; not that he was actually trying to predict the future), I’m amused the plot is structured around the abortive sale of Canada to the US by Britain in 1914. And the desire by both the Canadians and USians to merge in the year the novel is set. Recent events have shown the Canadians are more than happy not being part of the US - as indeed is Greenland, and, in fact, every other fucking nation on the fucking planet - and I suspect the same attitude pretty much held true back in 1981.

I’d remembered Night Probe! as one of the better Dirk Pitt novels, and it’s proven the best so far. Which doesn’t actually make it a good novel, just a good Cussler novel, which is not exactly a high bar. Trump’s deranged pronouncements since taking office, however, added a little extra to the reading. If only that were the only impact of his lunacy… show less

Clive Cussler's 1981 thriller, another exercise in implausibility, follows the formula of Vixen 03 but where the political background of the 5th novel was the freedom struggle in South Africa, this 6th outing for Dirk Pitt is about the fate of Canada and, more tangentially, the energy crisis of the time.

Cussler is nothing if not imaginative. As a Brit myself, it was quite a pleasant change to find the main antagonist of Dirk to be the British in the person of a suave and aging James Bond-alike with, at one point, a crew of tough Royal Marines invading Upper State New York.

A lot happens (which is one of the markers of a Cussler). The British angle nicely dovetails with a nineteenth century railroad crime gone wrong and the ruthless show more internecine state politics of Canada in the age of Quebec Libre. The Soviets get only a very small, merely implied, walk-on part.

The open sea also plays only a small part in this tale. Most of the action is on land or close to shore in riverine, estaurine and subterranean waters. As in Vixen 03, the story is as much an investigative historical detective story as 'contemporary' thriller.

The sex stuff is there but is much more restrained if still more than a little a ridiculous. Heidi from Book 5 turns up as a likeable naif allowed to make girly mistakes and be patronised by the boys. The denouement (no spoilers) is sweet and romantic and fits the character we saw in the previous book.

Dirk's team plays much less of a role in #6 - Giordano is scarcely seen. Even Pitt himself seems to take second place to no less than three sociopaths and the Canadian political shenanigans. The title is explained very late and only in passing.

Still, for all that, it is an accomplished and enjoyable bit of nonsense. Although its politics are somewhat dated (like its gender relations), it is reasonably fast-paced and filled with 'incident' (which is generally what you want in a popular thriller). show less

One one hand, wow can you tell that some of these books were written in the 80s. The energy crisis is top on everyone's mind and the USSR still stands.

This lays the groundwork for a bizarre alternate reality where a North American Treaty was signed between the UK and the US with the former selling Canada to the latter for $1 billion. It's a fairly ridiculous premise for a series that otherwise more or less takes place in our world, but that's become something of par for the course for Dirk Pitt. And it doesn't matter (in universe) anyways, since after the treaty was lost, two of the three copies were mysteriously lost: one in the (real life) ship wreck of the RMS Empress of Ireland (only 465 survivors out of 1477); the other lost when show more a train--The Manhattan Limited--falls through a bridge into a river.

It's a crazy coincidence for the most part, but it does set up the part where the Dirk Pitt novels really shine: digging through historical documents to pin down where the ship and train are and then going through what I assume (given Cussler's own experience) are more or less the real techniques that would be employed to salvage a ship/train from the bottom of their respective rivers. Also: ghost train. Because why not.

There's also a strange Canadian politics / energy trade / Quebec independence plotline that I didn't care overmuch for. That mostly acts as motivation and funding for a few of the weirder bits of the main plot.

Overall, it's a fun adventure and nautical salvage book. Pitt remains the James Bond of ocean salvage, unable to fail, but that's okay--he's the BIG DAMN HERO.

Suspend disbelief and enjoy the ride. This is the Dirk Pitt I remember from high school. show less

Months before World War I consumed Europe and brought Britain’s Empire to the fields of France, a historic treaty could have changed everything if not for two accidents. The sixth book of Clive Cussler’s Dirk Pitt series, Night Probe!, finds the series protagonist on a historical and internationally significant hunt for a Treaty that sold Canada to the United States even as the aforementioned nation is on the verge of splitting and the United Kingdom is sending it’s great secret agent to stop him.

On the same day, a railroad disaster along the Hudson River and a ship sinking in the St. Lawrence kills two diplomats from the United States and Great Britain heading from Canada to their respective capitals with signed treaties that show more sells Canada to the United States. After both men die and the treaties presumed lost, President Wilson communicates with his British counterpart to forget that it ever happened. Three-quarters of a century later, Heidi Mulligan finds a unknown letter by Wilson communicating to Prime Minister Asquith about the North American Treaty setting off a chain of events that discovers evidence about the unknown treaty and makes it’s way across the Pond to the British archives sending 10 Downing Street into a panic and getting out of retirement it’s greatest secret agent, Brian Shaw (not at all James Bond, but is basically an older James Bond). One of those Heidi tells is friend (from Vixen 03) Dirk Pitt who doing his own research on top of Heidi’s gives his circumstantial evidence to the new President, who was previously in the Senate with his father. The President uses the information as part of his plan with the embattled Canadian Prime Minister threatened with Quebec secession while recovering from an assassination attempt by a Quebec terrorist group headed by his own right-hand man in his cabinet, who is also having an affair with his wife. Shaw seduces Heidi to learn everything she does and then attempts to prevent Pitt from getting either copy of the treaty but comes just short. Pitt gets the Treaty to the President, who is speaking to the Canadian Parliament and announces the historical find while inviting the provinces to apply for statehood.

Before anything else, the biggest issue with this book is Cussler’s total lack of understanding of the Constitution, Canadian history, and the Commonwealth of Nations. Of the three it’s the Constitution as all treaties must be approved by the Senate, which a President that had been a sitting Senator would know as well as Pitt’s father who is still a Senator, and after 75 years attempting to bring it to a vote would probably result in a Supreme Court case. The second is the Commonwealth of Nations are all self-governing and not the British Empire under a new name, so while it would have been embarrassing to Britain it wouldn’t result in what happened in the book. Now let’s get to the story; overall, it’s a good overall adventure tale with a good spy subplot and some good political intrigue (Canadian) and not so good (President). Pitt was able to get more nuisance and Heidi Mulligan was the best female character in the series so far, Brian Shaw as the older not-James Bond but basically is was a nice touch and good way to segue into so many plots. The Canadian political intrigue, if fleshed out more, could have been its own book but just added to the overall quality and somewhat makes up for the lack of understanding of various things on Cussler’s part.

Night Probe! is a very good installment of the Dirk Pitt series that is unfortunately undermined by Clive Cussler’s intentional or unintentional lack of understanding over various political and historical factors. The various adventure, spy, and political intrigue subplots work well together to create fun book to read if you don’t think too much. show less

In May 1914 two couriers disappear in twin disasters taking the only two copies of the North American Treaty with them. The governments of the United States and Great Britain order a cover up so it is as if the treaty never existed. In February 1989 Heidi Milligan, a stunningly beautiful (of course) naval commander discovers an obscure reference to the long-lost document which is now worth billions of dollars. The race is on to rescue one copy of the treaty from the bottom of the ocean.

I have a soft spot for Dirk Pitt even though these books can get really over the top sometimes. This book is my favorite of the series because part of it is set in the village where I was living at the time. The physical description of the area was so show more detailed and so correct that I was convinced that a few of the other background details were based on fact. When I tried to hunt down the story at the local public library the story looked so plausible that the local history librarian was puzzled that she hadn't come across it before. We wrote to Clive Cussler and he replied "Don't believe everything you read" saying that he had made up every single bit of historical background in the book. show less

In May 1914 two couriers disappear in twin disasters taking the only two copies of the North American Treaty with them. The governments of the United States and Great Britain order a cover up so it is as if the treaty never existed. In February 1989 Heidi Milligan, a stunningly beautiful (of course) naval commander discovers an obscure reference to the long-lost document which is now worth billions of dollars. The race is on to rescue one copy of the treaty from the bottom of the ocean.

I have a soft spot for Dirk Pitt even though these books can get really over the top sometimes. This book is my favorite of the series because part of it is set in the village where I was living at the time. The physical description of the area was so show more detailed and so correct that I was convinced that a few of the other background details were based on fact. When I tried to hunt down the story at the local public library the story looked so plausible that the local history librarian was puzzled that she hadn't come across it before. We wrote to Clive Cussler and he replied "Don't believe everything you read" saying that he had made up every single bit of historical background in the book. show less

Night Probe *****

Night Probe is Cussler's 6th instalment featuring his Bondlike hero Dirk Pitt.

As seems to be something of a recurring trademark the book deals with a modern day Pitt researching an event that has happened in the countries history. This time we are taken back to a railroad crash featuring American and British diplomats that were carrying a document detailing the sale of Canada to the USA. Only two documents were in existence and both lost. A beautiful naval officer finds a reference to this after a decades long cover up and Dirk is assigned the task of recovering the papers before a national scandal erupts.

Fast paced and full of action, I always enjoy a Cussler novel. If you are a fan of the Boys own type of adventure show more give them a try. show less