Riptide

June 1, 1998
The authors' first and bestselling thriller, The Relic, hit the lists in part for its clever exploitation of an extraordinary setting--the American Museum of Natural History. Just so, their fourth novel (after Reliquary) makes sprightly use of Nova Scotia's Oak Island and its notorious Money Pit--here transplanted to offshore Maine as the Water Pit on Ragged Island. The novel opens with a brisk recap of often fatal efforts over the past 200 years to recover a fabled treasure--now worth $2 billion and including a mysterious relic, St. Michael's Sword--hidden by English pirate Edward Ockham in the Water Pit. The difficulty is that the Pit, nearly 200 feet deep, was designed to flood and to kill through booby traps anyone trying to broach the treasure. Into this nifty setup steps Martin Hatch, returning to Ragged Island 25 years after his brother and father died in the Pit. Hatch is back as part of a massive expedition attempting a high-tech assault on the Pit. Brash melodrama ensues as expedition members suffer various gory accidents and as Hatch realizes that the Sword possesses a quality that may kill the entire expedition. The novel suffers from a diffusion of villains--the authors variously demonize the Pit, the Pit's designer, the crazed expedition leader and the Sword--and from workaday prose and assembly-line characters (a computer nerd, a sexy French archeologist, a righteous minister). Machine-gun pacing, startling plot twists and smart use of legend, scientific lore (including cyptanalysis) and the evocative setting carry the day, however, resulting in an exciting boys' adventure tale for adults that's bound to be one of most popular of the summer reads. Film rights optioned by Arnold Kopelson; foreign rights sold in eight countries; simultaneous Time Warner audio. (July) FYI: The mystery of Oak Island and its Money Pit has been detailed in several books (e.g., D'arcy O'Conner's The Money Pit, 1978). The Pit, target over the past two centuries of numerous failed expeditions costing millions of dollars and six lives, is variously rumored to contain Captain Kidd's treasure, Incan gold and even the Holy Grail.

December 1, 1998
YA-The legend of Red Ned Ockham, a vicious 17th-century pirate, has cost many men their lives as they have tried to locate the billions of dollars worth of booty said to be at the bottom of Ragged Island's Water Pit. The current owner, Dr. Malin Hatch, lost his brother and father to the island off the coast of Maine, and it is with great reluctance that he allows Captain Neidelman and his crew to begin a new quest for the treasure. The story mixes a bit of historical fact about a pit on Oak Island, Nova Scotia, with the excitement of a high-tech treasure hunt, complete with adrenaline-laced action and the age-old battle of good versus evil. Hatch, as the understated hero, finally makes his own peace with his guilt over his brother's death. Neidelman and his evil sidekick, Streeter, personify the typical fools who get too wrapped up in greed, forgetting all decency. A geologist and a historian add personality, depth, and believability to the plot. An adventure of imagination, spiced with thrills, sprinkled with glimpses of history, and perfected with nonstop action.-Pam Johnson, Fairfax County Public Library, VA

March 1, 1998
The authors, who hit the big time with The Relic (remember the Paramount movie?), return with a tale of buried treasure. The $2 billion cache, at the bottom of a water pit on Ragged Island, ME, was evidently cursed by the English pirate to whom it belonged--which may be why treasure hunters keep dying in the attempt to recover it. Movie rights have already been optioned by Twentieth Century Fox, and foreign rights have been sold to eight countries.

June 15, 1998
Yo ho ho--get ready for a ripping good yarn! Dr. Malin Hatch is at first reluctant to let the Thalassa Group plunder his Ragged Island, off the coast of Maine, in yet another attempt to reclaim pirate Red Ned Ockham's 17th-century treasure. But its leaders assure him that they have the technology and skill to breach the deadly Water Pit that has claimed the lives of countless treasure hunters. They also have the encrypted diary of the Pit's designer, which, they claim, holds the key to the treasure's reclamation. But does it? This nonstop action adventure has all the elements of a perfect summertime thriller--pirate treasure of unimaginable worth, 300-year-old cryptograms written in invisible ink, a legendary curse, and a driven captain who will stop at nothing to reach his goal. The red-hot authors of Reliquary (LJ 5/1/97) score another big winner. Highly recommended for all fiction collections. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 3/1/98.]--Rebecca House Stankowski, Purdue Univ. Lib., Hammond, IN

May 15, 1998
The authors of "The Relic" (1995) and "Reliquary" turn their eyes seaward in a thrilling page-turner about buried treasure on a massively booby-trapped island off the coast of Maine. (This feature of the yarn has a real, historical model, Oak Island, off the coast of Nova Scotia, but its defenses have not exacted anything close to the body count that Preston and Child's Ragged Island does.) The book begins in an orthodox manner, with the owner of the island, who lost his brother to one of the booby traps 30 years ago, being urged by a mysterious but well-financed high-tech treasure hunter to open the island to yet another expedition. High-tech proves no protection against the island's increasingly lethal defenses, and the climactic struggle that takes up the whole last third of the book is entirely gripping. Preston and Child have put more effort into hardware and pacing than into characterization, and there are lapses in their knowledge of the sea, but fans of Peter Benchley and Clive Cussler, as well as thriller aficionados in general, will find this entertaining reading. The demand for this book may also increase as a result of marketing intended to take advantage of "Titanic" fever and a possible reader rush to anything smelling even vaguely of saltwater. ((Reviewed May 15, 1998))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1998, American Library Association.)