Science fiction

From the title, cover and blurb I expected a rather serious crime story or thriller that included the building or the voyage of the Titanic. I had never heard of the author or the series, and therefore I was rather shocked by the prologue. It involves Dirk Pitt, the hero of another series by Clive Cussler, who discovered an 18th-century submarine in New York that is about to be raised. When there are complications, he risks his life and jumps into the submarine. Because he is such a good hero, he succeeds in operating this 250 year old machine and there is a hunt along the Hudson River. Phew!
I understand that this might be a lot of fun and that many people will enjoy this kind of Indiana Jones story, but it was simply not what I had expected or what I like to read.

After the prologue, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the protagonist is not Dirk Pitt, but Isaac Bell, an American detective who works for the Van Dorn Agency (modeled on Pinkerton). He is investigating a mine disaster that is connected to the discovery of a rare element (similar to Radium). All is not as it seems, and what follows is a railway hunt through Great Britain, a visit to Paris and a journey on an ice-breaker to the Arctic.
I really enjoyed the crime story aspects of this: The investigation, the combining of clues and the discovery of secrets. The pre-World War One atmosphere is depicted well and I enjoyed the elegance of the time and the description of the settings and places.
What got on my nerves was the perfection of the hero Isaac Bell - I think across the whole novel, there are only two things mentioned that he can't do, related to acoustics and to fighting fire on a ship because he lacks experience. I think a character that is so perfect regarding everything - his personal traits, fighting skills, detective qualities, appearance - is simply boring. I understand that it may come with the genre, but still.
I also think that the story is simply too long, it should have ended at about 350 pages because after that it seems endlessly prolonged with yet another detention, another fight, another complication. It was so "boys will be boys". Yawn!

And then there's the disappointing fact that the Titanic only has a very minor role to play in the story. In fact, when Isaac Bell arrives in Southampton, she's already gone. In the following chapter, he has breakfast with his wife when they hear about the tragedy and realize how lucky they were to escape. I think that scene is well-written, but it doesn't really merit the title and the cover. This seems to be connected to an earlier Dirk Pitt novel where he raises the Titanic in connection to the search of the element featured in this book, but well, I won't dive into that. This will probably be the last Clive Cussler novel I have read. ( )

The Titanic Secret is an interesting book that is centered around a secret cargo that eventually went down with the Titanic. The cargo was a rare element with tremendous power and worth significant amount of money. It was dug out of the earth in the Arctic by nine Colorado miners. The miners in addition to suffering from horrendous conditions at the mine also had to survive many terrible obstacles both on land and water in order to bring the element to the United States. Isaac Bell, the lead detective of the Van Dorn Detective Agency, was assigned the task of helping the miners. There were so many narrow escapes that the story was not really believable. It was entertaining though. Only four stars for this review. ( )

I loved how the present day hero Dirk Pitt and century ago Isaac Bell are in the same story. Cussler did an excellent job joining the two together in this story. Pitt is given a report written by Isaac Bell since Pitt was the one who dealt with the Titanic (in an earlier book.)
Bell has been asked to look into the deaths of 9 Colorado miners. This task takes him to Iceland, Paris and other places before he solves the riddle. As usual this is an action packed book. Bell has to blow up ice bergs, fights a polar bear and fights the Socrete des Mines both on the water and on a train.
And yes there is a Titanic connection which is revealed towards the end of the book. ( )

Great adventure. considering the title, very little about the titanic. ( )