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The second book in a new Western series by Clive Cussler, “one of the greatest adventure novelists of our time” (imdb), The Wrecker represents the continuation of Cussler’s entry into the classic American genre of Wild West fiction. Who knows, maybe it will turn into his most popular series yet.

A detective by the name of Isaac Bell represents the main character in The Wrecker. Bell is as athletic and fearless as James Bond and as intellectually brilliant as Sherlock Holmes.

As an independently wealthy heir to a Boston banking family, Isaac Bell pursues his detective investigations with a fury born out of an obsession and passion for justice rather than the need to make a living.

Isaac Bell gets hired by the Southern Pacific Railroad Company to find and stop a saboteur known as “The Wrecker,” who has targeted Southern Pacific construction sites throughout the West. If the sabotage continues in the midst of pressing deadlines to finish work on a major new track, it could cost Southern Pacific its good standing with its lenders, and rapidly lead to bankruptcy.

The villain known as The Wrecker may be every bit as brilliant as Isaac Bell himself, reminiscent of Sherlock Holmes’ arch-nemesis Professor Moriarty. Up until the end of the novel, The Wrecker hides in plain sight within the circles of Southern Pacific Railroad president Osgood Hennessy.

The agenda of the Wrecker is to seize control of the Southern Pacific Railroad through various dummy corporations he has put in place, which will help him capture the fallout from Southern Pacific’s impending bankruptcy. Not only that but it appears he plans to eventually to control the entire United States railroad system, the greatest source of billionaire wealth in America at the turn of the last century.

Notorious as an avid automobile enthusiast, one reason why Clive Cussler may have picked the early 1900′s as the setting for his new series may well have been to give him an opportunity to write about car chases in classic automobiles from the turn of the last century.

Automobiles featured in The Wrecker include a Packard Grey Wolf, the 1907 Model 35 Thomas Flyer, winner of the New York to Paris race of 1908, Isaac Bell’s classic Locomobile, and a Bugatti Type 41 Royale.

Clive Cussler is a man of many passions, one of the best known and most obvious being his love of the ocean, as evidenced by his countless action novels revolving in and around water. But the fact that he has chosen to live in Colorado, far from the any great body of water, suggests that he also loves the rugged, arid and mountainous landscapes of the American West.

This “second” love of Clive Cussler shines through in his new Isaac Bell series in a way that will likely reinvigorate many old Wild West enthusiasts as well as give birth to a whole new generation of Western lovers. The book is a highly recommended read.

Mrs. Hellman resides in Western North Carolina with her spouse and three sons, where she works as a professional copywriter. She writes book review as a hobby. Visit her site to order The Wrecker by Clive Cussler, or the most recent Dirk Pitt adventure, Arctic Drift, Clive Cussler.