I'm not much into the whole political scene so I didn't enjoy this adventure as much as I usually do. Though I do love the way Clive Cussler mixes up events in the past (in this case 1965) with current events (in this case trouble with Russia in 1989). He usually has a bunch of seemingly unrelated events that he masterfully weaves into an incredibly cohesive story that drags you in and keeps you turning pages as fast as you can.All in all I thought it was a suspenseful (though rather gruesome) story that was believable to a degree. I did have trouble with Congresswoman Smith (Pitt's girlfriend) when she was on the Russian cruise. Now this is a Congresswoman who is dedicated to secrecy in all things and yet when she realizes that something hinky is going on with a fellow Senator, she uses an unsecure phone through a Russian switchboard operator and calls her secretary. Granted she is rather circumspect during the first conversation but then the secretary calls back and uses names. Congresswoman Smith has her suspicions confirmed and should be terrified that she is on this ship and in danger, yet instead of being clever and sly, she just blabs everything out for all to hear. Considering what was going on in 1989, I just found this rather unrealistic and unbelievable. I know it was done to move the plot along, but Clive Cussler is such a great writer that he could have come up with a believable way to advance the plot at this point.
