Product Description

Fully armed and with all hands on board, the nuclear submarine Starbuck sailed into the calm Pacific Ocean for sea trials - and vanished. No wreckage, no signals, no survivors: nothing ...until ace maritime troubleshooter Dirk Pitt finds a single, chilling clue in the shark-torn surf off Hawaii - the log of the Starbuck. 'Do not search for us, it can only end in vain ...' A crazed journal of madness and death is all that remains. And the Captain's final, scrawled, fear-crazed note locates the Starbuck's grave hundreds of miles from her last known position! The search for the Starbuck plunges Dirk Pitt into his most shattering assignment to date - a whirlpool of deep-sea mystery and terror - the Pacific Vortex!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #13500 in Books
• Published on: 2008-06-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

Review
For Raise the Titanic!: 'A great adventure thriller which spins from one dizzying climax to another ... Riveting ... simply super and very cleverly done' Publishers Weekly **

About the Author
A bestselling author who has had an adventurous life - sought lost gold mines in the American southwest, dived in isolated lakes of the Rocky Mountains for lost aircraft and dived for shipwrecks of historical significance.

Customer Reviews

Excellent serial character Dirk Pitt
I have never been a big fan of action thrillers. The only author I read regularly in this genre is Lee Child and his `Jack Reacher` character, and I enjoy him a lot, so I decided to give Clive Cussler a try. I am happy to say I was not disappointed! Even though "Pacific Vortex" was the first published book in the Dirk Pitt adventures series, it was the first Cussler wrote, so logically, this is the novel I picked to start my journey. I found an interesting character that lives at the edge and is passionate about his work. Also in some aspects he is similar to James Bond, women mainly, and the mix is sufficient to keep the reader thoroughly entertained. If you enjoy serial characters then this is a must series for you, also try Michael Connelly`s `Harry Bosh` series, or much more violent is the `Soft Target` thrillers by Conrad Jones. In the Dirk pitt stories Cussler has created a very entertaining series, with a character that has an arrogant and pedantic side, but whom also shows his pure emotions and is true to his friends and ideals. This makes the Special Project Director of the National Underwater and Marine Agency a very likable character. This is a book that a reader can breeze through in a few hours making it an enjoyable way to spend a weekend's afternoon. I will surely read the next book in this series hoping for a similar experience.

Excellent Read
I have thoroughly enjoyed reading it and am glad to find a good, well researched and entertaining adventure/thriller at last. The main character, Dirk Pitt is a believable hero with a wry sense of humour and endless determination.
I am now going to happily start working my way through the rest of the series and if you have never read a Dirk Pitt book before, then start with this one and enjoy, you have a treat in store !

I am happy I discovered this series!
I have never been a big fan of military thrillers. The only author I read regularly in this genre is Nelson DeMille and I enjoy him a lot, so I decided to give Clive Cussler a try. I am happy to say I was not disappointed! Even though "Pacific Vortex" was not the first published book in the Dirk Pitt adventures series, it was the first Cussler wrote, so logically, this is the novel I picked to start my journey. I found an interesting character that lives at the edge and is passionate about his work. Also in some aspects he is similar to James Bond, women mainly, and the mix is sufficient to keep the reader thoroughly entertained.

For six months the US government has been trying to find the Starbuck, a submarine lost in the Hawaiian (Pacific) vortex. This is an area similar to the well-known Bermuda Triangle. The submarine was lost on its maiden trial and possesses the most advanced equipment, in terms of nuclear capabilities, that the US has developed so far. The last known communication from the nuclear submarine came from captain Dupree, establishing that they were lost without possibilities of recovering themselves and giving the coordinates of their location. While in his holidays in the coast of Hawaii, Dirk finds a communications capsule from the Starbuck addressed to Admiral Hunter in Pearl Harbor. Thus, he is directly involved in the search for the submarine and starts a dangerous journey in which he will face different enemies, conspiracies and uncertainty about who to trust. He also meets a mysterious woman, Summer, who will rock his world and complicate matters further.

Cussler has created a very entertaining series, with a character that has an arrogant and pedantic side, but whom also shows his pure emotions and is true to his friends and ideals. This makes the Special Project Director of the National Underwater and Marine Agency a very likable character. This is a book that a reader can breeze through in a few hours making it an enjoyable way to spend a weekend's afternoon. I will surely read the next book in this series hoping for a similar experience.