2017 Book #45 – The Mediterranean Caper by Clive Cussler

51RzRwlEwRL._SX329_BO1,204,203,200_Title: The Mediterranean Caper
Author: Clive Cussler
Date finished: 5/14/17
Genre: Fiction, military
Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s Sons
Publication Date: July 16, 2013 (40th Anniversary reprint)
Pages in book: 220
Stand alone or series: #1 in the Dirk Pitt Adventure series
Where I got the book from: Terryville Public Library

Blurb from the cover:

On a quiet Greek island, a U.S. air force base has come under attack—by a World War I fighter plane . . . a famous yellow Albatros supposedly lost at sea in 1918.
Now it is up to Dirk Pitt, Al Giordino, and the rest of the NUMA team to root out the elusive truth behind the incident—and find out how it’s connected to mysterious acts of sabotage against a scientific expedition, an international smuggling ring, and a dark-haired beauty with some dangerous secrets.  The search for answers will lead Pitt from a lavish island villa, to a moving freighter eerily empty of crew, to a massive underwater cavern housing the heart of a criminal operation that is larger and more elaborate than he ever could have imagined . . . a lucrative operation that its mastermind would kill to protect.
With its fearless and dashing hero, high-stakes action, and non-stop excitement, The Mediterranean Caper is classic Dirk Pitt . . . and classic Cussler.

My rating:  1.5 stars out of a scale of 5

My review: I read this book for the Terryville Library’s Fiction Lover’s Book Discussion group discussion for this month (May). This was a military adventure type novel, supposedly in the same vein as an Indiana Jones type novel. Dirk Pitt is called out to a Greek island with his friend Giordino to help with a problem that’s come up. Along the way, through a series of events that could only be arranged by fate, Pitt gets involved in a larger issue: major drug deals and a dastardly villain who is the very definition of evil.
Overall this was not my favorite book. The hero was so cocky and arrogant, I hated it. And it didn’t make any sense how he kept figuring out the scheme/story behind every twist and turn, I couldn’t understand how Pitt seemed to be this all-knowing character. I mean yes he was smart but it was ridiculous how much he knew about each facet of other people’s plans just by guessing. And I think part of the reason I didn’t love this book was because it was written so long ago there were certain things that just were cringe-worthy. In the first 40 pages of the book, Pitt meets a beautiful but sad woman on the beach, backhands her, and then has sex with her all within like a page and it was just so ridiculously unrealistic. So overall not my favorite but I can where it would appeal to certain readers.

The bottom line: This book was not my favorite, it just didn’t capture my interest. The hero’s character didn’t appeal to me personally but I am sure this book would appeal to some.

Link to author website

Click on the cover to go to the book’s Amazon page

Bout of Books 19 Update & WRAP UP

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Day 7 was mostly spent with family and I also spent the morning volunteering but I managed to read about 2 hours at night before bed. My Sunday’s progress is below followed by my wrap up of my overall Bout of Books accomplishments:

Updates

Sunday
Number of pages I’ve read today: 110
Total number of pages I’ve read: 1,076
Books read today: I finished Mediterranean Caper by Clive Cussler, review will be up tonight!
Challenges: Sunday was a free day so there was no challenge

Time Devoted to Reading

My goal was to devote at least 2 hours a day to reading and I unfortunately did not reach that goal every day! I read about 17 hours over the course of the 7 days which was good, but last year for this challenge I read 27 hours so there was a definite decline. And I only read just over 1,000 pages compared to over 1,700 pages so while I accomplished a lot in one week I wish it had gone a little better!

My Goals

My goal for this read-a-thon was to do the daily challenges, read about two hours a day and have fun! I posted a update every day on how the previous day went and I also did Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday‘s “challenge” post.  I really had a lot of fun with Thursday’s “Character Dating profile” post!

Books to Read

Overall I think it was a pretty successful week considering how many other engagements / work projects I had going on. I had a great time participating and I will definitely want to participate in another Bout of Books in the future!