The Race

July 18, 2011
Set in 1909, bestseller Cussler and Scott's nifty fourth adventure thriller starring Isaac Bell, ace detective with the Van Dorn Detective Agency (the company motto: "We never give up. Never"), focuses on airplanes. The previous three outings featured locomotives (The Chase and The Wrecker) and a submarine (The Spy). Bell must protect Josephine Frost, an aviatrix competing in the Whiteway Atlantic-to-Pacific Cross-Country Air Race, from her deranged ex-husband, Harry Frost, who's trying to kill her for various complicated reasons. Sabotage among the flying pioneers competing for a $50,000 prize for the first one to cross America in 50 days is rampant. A number of subplots provide twists, but it's the battle between the handsome, daring Bellâ"His frame was whipcord lean"âand the hulking, diabolical psychopath Frost that will keep readers turning the pages. Evocative period detail, brave men and women and their fabulous flying machines, and nonstop action add up to plenty of fun.

April 1, 2011

Det. Isaac Bell is back, doing his Pinkerton-ish best to fight crime in early 1900s America. More than that I cannot tell you, but, as LJ observes, because this series deals with historical fact, it "cannot go over the top like so many of Cussler's futuristic novels." Bell would seem to be a terrific new hero from Cussler.

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from September 15, 2011
It's pretty near impossible not to like a novel that begins: A tall drunk danced alone in the gutter. In the fourth Isaac Bell novel, set in 1910, the Van Dorn Detective Agency's chief investigator is hired by a powerful newspaper publisher to keep his star aviator safe from her own husband (who has already spent time in an insane asylum for killing a man and who has just murdered his wife's lover). Bell, juggling the dual tasks of protecting the flyer and locating her psychopathic husband, soon discovers that very little about this assignment is as straightforward as it first seemed. Full of twists and turnsand one whopping big surprisethe story should keep readers glued to their chairs. Readers who have tired of Cussler's long-running Dirk Pitt series should definitely give the Isaac Bell novels a try. Intended to conjure up comparisons to Sherlock Holmes, Bell just keeps getting more interesting. Cussler, ably assisted by Scott, demonstrates that he is not only comfortable writing stories set in the past, but that, at this late stage of his career, which has seen both hits and misses, he's also capable of turning out some of his best work. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: The Cussler machine keeps purring along, with the help of a team of cowriters, of course. His relatively new Isaac Bell series has found an eager audience through three novels, and the fourth will be helped along by aggressive promotion, both traditional and digital.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)

November 28, 2011
With aviation in its infancy, a newspaperman is sponsoring a cross-country competition featuring flying machines and a hefty prize. But when someone ends up dead and the husband of one of the racers is implicated, chief investigator Isaac Bell of the Van Dorn Agency is called in to investigate. Scott Brick does his best with what he’s given, but the book’s pretentiously reverent tone, paper-thin characters, and stilted dialogue conspire to undermine this audio production. From his extensive audiography and numerous awards, listeners will realize that Brick—a veteran Cussler narrator—is a much better performer than this particular production demonstrates. The Race simply doesn’t do its narrator—or its author—justice. A Putnam Adult hardcover.

August 1, 2011

Isaac Bell returns for his fourth adventure (after The Chase, The Wrecker, and The Spy) in another exciting and lively period piece. It's 1910, and the public has grown accustomed to seeing this newfangled piece of technology called the airplane. Newspaper publisher Preston Whiteway offers $50,000 to the first person to fly across the United States from New York to San Francisco in fewer than 50 days. Bell and the team from the Van Dorn Detective Agency are assigned to make sure the race is legit and keep the frontrunner, Josephine Frost, from meeting an untimely end at the hands of her estranged husband. The agency has encountered Harry Frost before, and they know that taking him down will not be easy. VERDICT Cussler and Scott deliver another outstanding adventure that skillfully invokes the time period. All the women are gorgeous, all the men are dashing, and all the airplanes and other new machinery are lovingly described. Fans of this series and of Cussler in general will want to add this to their collections. [See Prepub Alert, 3/7/11.]--Jeff Ayers, Seattle P.L.

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.