Book Review – Clive Cussler’s “The Chase”
Last night I finished reading Clive Cussler’s novel, The Chase, part of the Isaac Bell series of novels.
Opening and closing in 1950 on a lake in Montana, The Chase primarily takes place in 1906 San Francisco and the surrounding area.
Banks throughout the region are in turmoil. A particularly brutal bandit nicknamed the “Butcher Bandit” has been robbing banks and killing the workers. He strikes without warning, disappearing immediately after the crime and leaving the local sheriffs no evidence. To further complicate matters, each town seems to have a different description of the possible suspect. The Butcher Bandit is thought to have killed at least thirty-three people and amassed a small fortune.
It’s up to the elite Van Dorn Detective Agency and lead detective Isaac Bell to stop the Butcher Bandit and bring him to justice.
Isaac Bell is the latest of heroes by author Clive Cussler. He’s an intelligent person, ready to use his firearms as likely as his fists, and backed by a large family fortune. He’s also an adventurer and automobile enthusiast, much like one of Cussler’s most famous characters, Dirk Pitt.
Highlights in The Chase include fantastic descriptions of steam locomotives and train companies, terrific action sequences, and the devastating 1906 San Francisco earthquake. The earthquake occurs in a pivotal part of the story, setting up the ending and elaborate train chase across the western part of the United States.
As a whole, The Chase is a simple but fairly entertaining detective story. Its strengths include everything involving the steam locomotives and two chases in the story. One chase is between Isaac Bell’s car and a train running from San Francisco to San Diego. The other, and grander, chase involves two steam trains making a run from San Francisco, across the mountains, and north towards the Canadian border.
Personally, I’m a huge fan of this time period in American history, so the setting itself was another strength for me. The action scenes were pretty good, and the villain was a particularly nasty person with lots of blood on his hands.
One of the biggest failures with this story involves the main character, Isaac Bell. As it was pointed out by other readers, Bell’s personal fortune makes it relatively easy for him to go around and solve crimes as a detective. He’s easily able to bribe people, he can afford the most lavish accommodations when traveling, and he has an abundance of resources available for researching criminals and organizations. If Bell had a more modest income and been forced to solve the puzzles like “normal” people, then his character would have been much more interesting.
Don’t get me wrong. I think that Isaac Bell is a great character (almost like an American version of Sherlock Holmes), but his family fortune just makes it too easy for him in the story. This was also noticed when reading book two in the Isaac Bell series, The Wrecker.
For those people expecting a literary masterpiece, don’t get your hopes up. Clive Cussler writes great adventure stories filled with a tremendous amount of history. His later novels are more elaborate, but his writing style is still on the simple side.
Despite the simplicity with some of his stories, I’m looking forward to reading more of Clive Cussler’s work and the Isaac Bell series.
