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After a sailboat drifts into a "live-fire" naval exercise area known as Whiskey Gulf, it's never heard from again. Maritime private investigator Charlie Noble is asked to discover what happened to the couple abroad. But he's stonewalled by the American and Canadian military. Then he learns that a Middle Eastern agent has been dispatched to find the couple as well--an agent with an old score to settle from his days as a Coast Guard intelligence officer. Ultimately, Noble and his partner, Native American salvage diver Raven, head north along the Inside Passage, where a hidden cove harbors answers about what really happened in Whiskey Gulf. But in order to return with the truth they must first survive a vicious attack and escape the clutches of a deadly whirlpool. Set in the stunning wilderness of the Pacific Northwest,Whiskey Gulf is a story about unlocking secrets from the past that some people would rather keep concealed.… (more)
User reviews
With that in mind, it's a good bet I’m not going to find a book fascinating that includes passages like this one, part of a conversation
"Let’s see. The Etheridge is a Hamilton-class High Endurance Cutter, 378 feet in length. Forty-three feet wide, weighing in close to 3,250 tons. Maybe sixty feet from the deck to the top of her aft tower, with a fifteen to eighteen-foot draft.”
Or how about this conversation between Charlie Noble and his old friend Adam:
"‘Forty-eight-foot custom steel pilothouse trawler,’ I said.
‘Fifty feet. Steel.’
‘Single diesel.’
‘Gardner 6XLB. One twenty-seven horsepower, capable of a hand-crank start.’
‘Stop, you’re killing me.’”
Oh, me too! But it’s not all about the boats. Ships. Whatever. There’s a bit of plain old dialogue as well, that’s so stilted and hackneyed, you almost want to hear about the vessel specs again. Take this exchange between Charlie and his girlfriend Kate. Kate begins:
"…I will be glad when the Etheridge leaves in about a week. Perhaps it will also be good that you’ll be away.
Why’s that?
I need some time away from the man I want, and this man who suddenly wants me, so that I can process the past in order to leave it behind.
Then I look forward to being with you again on the other side of our pasts.”
Is there a plot buried in all this? Yes, and the author sums it up himself (in the voice of Charlie Noble) in one paragraph:
"A couple in a sailboat had gone missing. Two governments [the U.S. and Canada] had covered up the truth. A foreign agent had been dispatched to find and silence them; an agent whose brother I’d killed. Raven [a Native American friend with a knack for dog whispering and drumming] and I needed to find that couple before he did. I feared that our search might also lead him to the couple.”
Evaluation: This is not very good. Sorry, Charlie.
Charlie Noble is a maratime private investigator. He's hired by
Through many false starts Charlie is given the run around. He tries the U.S. Coast Guard, they avoid the issue, Canadian Coast Guard, the same thing.
However, he meets Maya Shimazu and investigative reporter who is writing about the missing boat.
Maya thinks she has info on the boat. She takes Charlie to where the boat went missing and they find pieces of fiberglass with explosive burn marks on the edges. Heavy fog sets in and they are startled to see a torpedo speed through the water 20 yards from their boat.
Charlie keeps at it, with friends and acquaintances, he gets the fiberglass tested and finally gets a lead to what might be happening.
There is extensive technical information given on boating and on the area and even on the history of a mountain. All of which left me wondering what was happening to the plot.
We have much shooting and near misses but somehow I didn't feel much suspense.