Isaac Bell - 02 - The Wrecker

✍ Scribed by Clive Cussler

• Publisher: Putnam Adult;Penguin Group
• Year: 2009;2010
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 421 KB
• Category: Fiction
• ISBN: 0399155996

✦ Synopsis

In The Chase, Clive Cussler introduced an electrifying new hero, the tall, lean, no-nonsense detective Isaac Bell, who, driven by his sense of justice, travels early-twentieth-century America pursuing thieves and killers . . . and sometimes criminals much worse.

It is 1907, a year of financial panic and labor unrest. Train wrecks, fires, and explosions sabotage the Southern Pacific Railroad's Cascades express line and, desperate, the railroad hires the fabled Van Dorn Detective Agency. Van Dorn sends in his best man, and Bell quickly discovers that a mysterious saboteur haunts the hobo jungles of the West, a man known as the Wrecker, who recruits accomplices from the down-and-out to attack the railroad, and then kills them afterward. The Wrecker traverses the vast spaces of the American West as if he had wings, striking wherever he pleases, causing untold damage and loss of human life. Who is he? What does he want? Is he a striker? An anarchist? A revolutionary determined to displace the "privileged few"? A criminal mastermind engineering some as yet unexplained scheme?

Whoever he is, whatever his motives, the Wrecker knows how to create maximum havoc, and Bell senses that he is far from done-that, in fact, the Wrecker is building up to a grand act unlike anything he has committed before. If Bell doesn't stop him in time, more than a railroad could be at risk-it could be the future of the entire country.

Filled with intricate plotting and dazzling set pieces, The Wrecker is one of the most entertaining thrillers in years.

From Publishers Weekly

Set in 1907, the rousing second thriller to feature detective Isaac Bell (after The Chase) from bestseller Cussler and Scott pits Bell against the Wrecker, who's been destroying trains and railroad facilities around the country for no apparent reason. These horrific incidents are wreaking havoc on the plans of Osgood Hennessy, the Southern Pacific Railroad's president, who's constructing the massive Cascade Canyon Bridge in Oregon. If the project isn't completed by winter, Hennessy's bankers will withdraw financing and his company will be destroyed. As in the first book, the purposefully stilted writing style takes a little getting used to, but there's plenty of excitement to be had in a world where massive, fire-breathing trains fly along at speeds of up to 120 mph. While the Wrecker's identity is revealed early on and there's never any doubt that Isaac will get his man, readers will find many thrills and much diabolical cleverness along the way. (Nov.)
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From Booklist

Cussler, known primarily for his contemporary high-tech thrillers, steps back in timemore than a century, in factin this rousing sequel to The Chase (2007). Van Dorn Detective Agency operative Isaac Bell returns, this time to track down a clever saboteur whos been dubbed the Wrecker. Seems the Wrecker has it in for the Southern Pacific Company, and he will stop at nothing, including murder, to keep the company from putting through a new railway line between San Francisco and northern California. Isaac is a sharply drawn series lead, and the story, as befits a railroad-themed thriller, moves at a brisk clip. In addition, theres a very nice surprise in the final scenes. Readers who have sensed a certain been-there-done-that feeling in some of Cusslers recent novels will be pleased to find a new spark here. More Isaac Bell novels would be most welcome. --David Pitt