Book Review: Spartan Gold

New York Times bestselling author Clive Cussler launches a fifth parallel action series with the publication of Spartan Gold, co-authored by up and coming novelist Grant Blackwood.

The new series is referred to as “Fargo Adventures,” based on its action heroes, a married couple named Sam and Remi Fargo.

After a few years of entrepreneurship early in life which made them a fortune, the Fargos have been able to devote their new lives to their main passion, archeological treasure hunting. And they generally let nothing and no one deter them from finding their prize.

The Fargo Adventures feature a new set of characters and a new approach in the form of archeological treasure hunting. (New in terms of being the main focus.) But as with any Cussler-novel, we can still expect a lot of the action to take place in and around water, as well as plenty of exotic cars, foods and drinks.

Spartan Gold follows Sam and Remi on the trail of Napoleon Bonaparte and twelve bottles from his legendary lost wine cellar, each with a clue written in code on the back of the label.

Naturally, their quest to unravel this mystery does not go unimpeded. Relentlessly on their heels are the hired ruffians of Bondaruk, a former Soviet freedom fighter from an ethnic minority group, who has since turned into a ruthless mafia billionaire.

Bondaruk believes the end of the trail will lead to an ancient Greek gold-treasure once conquered by his ancestor, the Persian ruler Xerxes the Great. A treasure which Bondaruk has convinced himself is his rightful heritage, and no one will be allowed to stand in his way of getting it.

The wine-bottle trail leads Sam and Remi, as well as their adversaries, from a sunken German submarine in the Great Pocomoke Swamp, Maryland, to the Bahamas, through much or Europe, from Germany, France and Italy to Croatia and Ukraine: not necessarily in that order.

Spartan Gold is a solid, action-filled treasure hunting novel in the spirit of The Da Vinci Code. It is also distinctly a Clive Cussler novel with all of what that entails. Another guaranteed New York Times bestseller, in other words.

Britt Hellman resides in North Carolina with her husband and three sons, operating her own copywriting business out of her home. Clive Cussler is a long time favorite author. Visit her Cussler book site to order the Spartan Gold novel or read her review of the latest Dirk Pitt novel, Arctic Drift by Clive Cussler.