Book Review – Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child’s “Riptide”
Just recently I finished reading Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child’s thrilling novel, Riptide.
Note – Riptide is a standalone novel for Preston & Child, and this is not part of their famous Agent Pendergrass series.
Riptide is a story about treasure hunting. Specifically, it’s about hunting for a massive load of pirate treasure buried deep on an uninhabited island off the coast of Maine. The only problem is that the treasure is cursed and everybody who has tried to recover the treasure is either dead or financially ruined. It doesn’t help that the treasure is buried at the bottom of a devious structure nicknamed the “Water Pit,” and all previous attempts to dig around and through the Pit have failed.
Riptide beings with a fairly long summary of everybody who has tried to claim the treasure from 1790 all the way to 1946 when the island was purchased by the wealthy individual, Alfred Westgate Hatch, Sr. Two years later his obsession with the infamous Water Pit and the island’s hidden treasure had drained his wealth and made him declare bankruptcy. Not long after that he was dead, one of many direct and indirect victims of the curse of the pirate treasure at Ragged Island.
Fast forward to July of 1971.
Young Malin Hatch and his older brother, Johnny, are bored at home. While their parents are away, Johnny convinces his brother to go along on a trip to Ragged Island. After all, if they can find the lost pirate treasure, then they could help their parents’ financial problems. Malin is initially against the idea, but he goes along with his older brother’s plan. The two of them take a small powered boat and sail the six miles to the small, uninhabited island.
The young Hatch boys arrive at Ragged Island and land on its rocky shore. The island is literally littered with the remains of digging equipment and old barges and boats, victims from strong storms and financially bankrupt companies. They explore part of the island and find a small cave entrance. Johnny and Malin enter the small cavern, and they’re surprised to discover a small tunnel that leads deep underground. Using a bunch of matches, Johnny leads his younger brother into the tunnel.
The boys continue deeper and deeper into the tunnel. Just as they strike their last few matches, they reach what appears to be the end of the tunnel. It’s a small room with several smooth walls. There’s no treasure. The room goes pitch black as the last match burns out, and suddenly Johnny disappears from the room. Malin tries to find him, but he only discovers a small pool of Johnny’s blood. Malin is forced to find his way out of the cave, make his way back to shore, and tell his parents the news.
Fast forward to today (this was published in the late 1990s).
Dr. Malin Hatch is a prestigious doctor in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Part of his medical experience has taken him to exotic places such as Sierra Leone, Madagascar and the Comoros islands off the eastern coast of Africa. As last surviving member of his family, Hatch still has exclusive ownership of Ragged Island, which includes whatever lies underground.
One day Gerard Niedelman, famed treasure hunter, approaches Dr. Hatch at his office. He makes Hatch a proposition for treasure hunting on Ragged Island. For a generous share of the treasure’s profits (estimated to be around $2 billion), he’ll allow Dr. Hatch to be part of his expedition. Malin Hatch only accepts the proposal if he’s allow to be the expedition’s field doctor and an active part of the team, not just a silent partner.
Unlike the other treasure hunters who have come to Malin, seeking permission to dig on his island, Niedelman’s company has a significant advantage. In addition to knowing the name of the architect who designed the Water Pit and its lethal traps, they also possess the journal he wrote while designing and constructing the Water Pit. With a little decrypting work, they’ll be able to read his hidden notes and safely bypass the traps.
A great deal of Riptide takes place in the fictional seaside town of Stormhaven, Maine, Malin Hatch’s hometown. It’s a small town that has slowly shrunk over the years. Malin faces inner demons when he returns home to face his former friends and neighbors. Many of the residents believed that he played a part in his brother’s sudden, and bloody, disappearance twenty-some years ago.
After arriving in Stormhaven and reacquainting himself with the town, Dr. Hatch sails his powered boat to Ragged Island. The charted ships of Thalassa Holdings, Ltd. soon arrive with Captain Niedelman in overall charge of the treasure recovery operation. His team of staff has everybody from archaeologists to computer scientists to expert diggers to geologists.
Soon the crews get to work. Some of the teams begin charting the island to determine which areas are safe to walk, while the computer scientists begin constructing the island’s computer network. They then begin writing programs to help decode the architect’s ancient journal.
On the first day of operations, one of the crew members is in serious trouble. He’s somehow pinned in one of the caves, and water rushing in with the tide will drown him in a few minutes. Dr. Hatch rushes to the scene, is lowered into the hole, and is forced to amputate the trapped man’s legs in order to free him. The man survives the incident as he’s airlifted to a hospital and treated by doctors. But for the men in the company and the people of Stormhaven, this is just a sign of the treasure’s deadly curse.
The digging operations continue, and soon the crews discover the true Water Pit. They begin surveying it and forming plans on how to drain the water. The problem is that many underground tunnels connect the Water Pit with the Atlantic Ocean, and finding and sealing them is a bit of a challenge. The team forms a plan, and for a while it appears to work. That is, until the tidal water re-floods the Water Pit. The crew then begins work on a more elaborate plan of constructing a massive coffer dam to surround part of the island and block the ocean’s access entirely to the Water Pit.
During this time the computer scientists begin noticing unusual problems with the island’s new computer network. Random problems have been developing, and nothing rational points to the source of the problems. Could this be another part of the treasure’s curse?
The team’s archaeologists soon discover a massive grave full of pirates. Unlike traditional graves, the pirates buried here (about 80-100 of them), are still fully dressed and armed with their weapons. One of the pirates still had treasure hidden in a boot. So why would that many pirates suddenly need to be buried in a massive grave on an uninhabited island? Is this another part of the treasure’s deadly curse?
Alas, the quest for the pirate treasure and powerful “St. Michael’s Sword” continues. Dr. Malin Hatch assists the teams as they solve the riddle of the Water Pit and why so many workers are getting ill during the expedition. He and the team race against time as the summer season comes to a close and a power nor’easter develops in the Atlantic Ocean.
As the storm develops and battles the area with massive waves, driving rain, and hurricane-force wind, Malin Hatch not only battles the ferocious elements and the traitorous crew of Captain Niedelman, but also the deadly secret of St. Michael’s Sword. It’s the sword that’s behind the curse of the treasure, and Niedelman is steps away from unknowingly unleashing its full fury on not only the remaining members of the team, but the town of Stormhaven and the surrounding area as well.
As a whole, Riptide is a great novel about hunting for treasure hunting. My only problem with Riptide was that some of Malin’s time in Stormhaven gets rather boring as he’s battling his inner demons. Most of those sections can be skipped, and you’ll still get a fun story in the end.
The name of the book, Riptide, is more of a nautical-themed metaphor for being sucked into an obsession. As we read in Riptide, Captain Niedelman is obsessed with St. Michael’s Sword and the pirate’s treasure, doing whatever is necessary to recover it from the Water Pit. He will sacrifice anybody and everybody in order to accomplish his goal. It’s that very obsession that leads to the thrilling ending of the book.
Perhaps the most interesting part of Riptide involves St. Michael’s Sword. I’m not going to spoil what makes it so special and deadly, but that sword’s backstory could easily be another thrilling novel.
If you enjoy stories involving the sea, pirates, treasure hunting, and a little bit of history and science fiction thrown into the mix, then you’ll enjoy Riptide. It’s not a perfect novel, but it’s definitely a lot of fun and a great summer read.
