Clive Cussler The Sea Wolves: An Isaac Bell Adventure

The rousing 13th Isaac Bell adventure (after 2021’s The Saboteurs), Du Brul’s first solo effort, combines the nostalgic flavor of a 1900s dime novel with a modern thriller sensibility. In 1914, on the eve on WWI, the Van Dorn Detective Agency is supervising the transfer of thousands of rifles to ships bound for England from New York. Bell, the agency’s chief investigator, and his best friend, Van Dorn detective Archie Abbott, discover a radio transmitter planted by a saboteur in a cache of weapons that will broadcast to German U-boats the exact location of the merchant ships carrying war matériel. Bell foils the plan and catches the attention of Joe Marchetti, a naval ensign who suspects that a German spy ring operates out of New York City’s docks. Between action sequences, Du Brul peppers the story with tidbits of real history and persons, conveying a palpable sense of wonder for the new inventions of the day. The tension rises as Bell and Marchetti board the doomed ocean liner RMS Lusitania to deliver a secret weapon to the English. Fans of the late Clive Cussler (1931–2020) will be gratified to know that Bell and his cohorts are in good hands. Agent: Peter Lampack, Peter Lampack Agency. (Nov.)