Only her eyes moved – right, left, right, left - back and forth across the page. She was quite still, but relaxed, with one leg swinging slowly over the arm of the brown leather chair in which she sat. At thirteen and a half, her complexion left something to be desired and her red hair was just a tad on the frizzy side, but for her the ugly duckling stage was almost over.
Any observer would have rightly called her state hypnotic. Her first conscious movement was her hand turning the page of the book she held. At her age, it might have been more typical for her choice of reading material to be Tiger Beat, Vogue or the latest Danielle Steel tear-jerker, but it was none of the above – it was Raise the Titanic.
The World - 2001
Clive Cussler wrote Raise the Titanic in the mid-1970s. The genuine article, the Titanic herself, would not be discovered for another decade. And instead of Dirk Pitt, Bob Ballard got to live out a version of Cussler’s waking dream. Whether Cussler’s version of the Titanic’s ultimate fate was imagination or part premonition, at 13 I firmly believed it was nothing less than inspired genius. All of Cussler’s books, before and since, have enthralled me not only from a mystery and suspense standpoint, but from an archaeological one as well.
“I was big on it when I was a kid,” Cussler said in a recent phone interview. “I wanted to be an archaeologist, but then I found out there was no money in it. It’s always held a great fascination for me.”
No doubt his current career has turned out to be a bit more lucrative than a career in archaeology would have been. But, Cussler has not entirely abandoned his boyhood fantasy. Archaeology plays a part in all of his books. Cussler manages to persuade his readers to make great leaps of faith with him. He is legendary for his intricate plot twists and his ability to weave history into modern day mystery.
“I always have two prologues,” Cussler said. “ I like to boggle the reader a little bit. It’s always fun to thread the needle.”
Sahara includes one of Cussler’s most extravagant and, some may say, far-fetched plots. Dirk Pitt and Al Giordino find the mummified remains of Honest Abe in a Confederate ironclad in the middle of the Sahara Desert. Just how did Cussler come up with such a scenario?
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