Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly
The authors' first and bestselling thriller, The Relic, hit the lists in part for its clever exploitation of an extraordinary settingthe American Museum of Natural History. Just so, their fourth novel (after Reliquary) makes sprightly use of Nova Scotia's Oak Island and its notorious Money Pithere transplanted to offshore Maine as the Water Pit on Ragged Island. The novel opens with a brisk recap of often fatal efforts over the past 200 years to recover a fabled treasurenow worth $2 billion and including a mysterious relic, St. Michael's Swordhidden by English pirate Edward Ockham in the Water Pit. The difficulty is that the Pit, nearly 200 feet deep, was designed to flood and to kill through booby traps anyone trying to broach the treasure. Into this nifty setup steps Martin Hatch, returning to Ragged Island 25 years after his brother and father died in the Pit. Hatch is back as part of a massive expedition attempting a high-tech assault on the Pit. Brash melodrama ensues as expedition members suffer various gory accidents and as Hatch realizes that the Sword possesses a quality that may kill the entire expedition. The novel suffers from a diffusion of villainsthe authors variously demonize the Pit, the Pit's designer, the crazed expedition leader and the Swordand from workaday prose and assembly-line characters (a computer nerd, a sexy French archeologist, a righteous minister). Machine-gun pacing, startling plot twists and smart use of legend, scientific lore (including cyptanalysis) and the evocative setting carry the day, however, resulting in an exciting boys' adventure tale for adults that's bound to be one of most popular of the summer reads. Film rights optioned by Arnold Kopelson; foreign rights sold in eight countries; simultaneous Time Warner audio. (July) FYI: The mystery of Oak Island and its Money Pit has been detailed in several books (e.g., D'arcy O'Conner's The Money Pit, 1978). The Pit, target over the past two centuries of numerous failed expeditions costing millions of dollars and six lives, is variously rumored to contain Captain Kidd's treasure, Incan gold and even the Holy Grail.
VOYA - John Charles
Almost three hundred years ago, bloodthirsty pirate "Red Ned" Ockham hid his ill-gotten booty off the coast of Maine on Ragged Island. Red Ned did not simply bury his treasure; he forced one of his hostages, English architect William Macallan, to design a Water Pit that would keep his treasure safe until he could sail back and retrieve it. Red Ned never returned to claim his loot. Over the following two centuries many lives and fortunes were lost as amateur and professional treasure seekers attempted to solve the riddle of the deadly Water Pit. The last time anyone set foot on Ragged Island was thirty years ago when young Malin Hatch and his older brother Johnny went exploring. Johnny was killed in one of the tunnels that riddled the island, and Malin swore never to return again. When treasure recovery specialist Gerard Neidelman turns up with Macallan's old journal, which might hold the key to the Water Pit, Malin finds himself becoming a reluctant partner in a high-tech expedition to reclaim the pirate's billion dollar treasure. Preston and Child are two authors who have perfected the recipe for high octane suspense novels. With its mix of action and danger, bits of historical lore and legend, and the occasional high-tech gadget, Riptide is the perfect choice for teens who enjoy books like Nelson DeMille's Plum Island (Warner, 1997) or Clive Cussler's adventure novels. VOYA Codes: 5Q 4P S (Hard to imagine it being any better written, Broad general YA appeal, Senior High-defined as grades 10 to 12).
Library Journal
Yo ho ho--get ready for a ripping good yarn! Dr. Malin Hatch is at first reluctant to let the Thalassa Group plunder his Ragged Island, off the coast of Maine, in yet another attempt to reclaim pirate Red Ned Ockham's 17th-century treasure. But its leaders assure him that they have the technology and skill to breach the deadly Water Pit that has claimed the lives of countless treasure hunters. They also have the encrypted diary of the Pit's designer, which, they claim, holds the key to the treasure's reclamation. But does it? This nonstop action adventure has all the elements of a perfect summertime thriller--pirate treasure of unimaginable worth, 300-year-old cryptograms written in invisible ink, a legendary curse, and a driven captain who will stop at nothing to reach his goal. The red-hot authors of Reliquary (LJ 5/1/97) score another big winner. Highly recommended for all fiction collections. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 3/1/98.]--Rebecca House Stankowski, Purdue Univ. Lib., Hammond, IN
Library Journal
The authors, who hit the big time with The Relic (remember the Paramount movie?), return with a tale of buried treasure. The $2 billion cache, at the bottom of a water pit on Ragged Island, ME, was evidently cursed by the English pirate to whom it belongedwhich may be why treasure hunters keep dying in the attempt to recover it. Movie rights have already been optioned by Twentieth Century Fox, and foreign rights have been sold to eight countries.
Kirkus Reviews
Thrilling adventure of dredging for pirate treasure on an island off the Maine coast, by the authors of the best-selling Relic (1995) and Reliquary (1997). Several centuries back, the English pirate Edward Ockham buried what is now $2 billion worth of treasure on Ragged Island. Sometime later, a cod-fishing boat was shipwrecked there, and a strange depression in the island strongly suggested that something lay underneath. Indeed, buried bulwarks point to human handiwork, and at last a Water Pit is discovered, with underground passageways leading to it that protect the treasure from recovery. Over the centuries, various dredging companies are formed and financed to suck out the Water Pit. But the Pit must have been designed by a genius: It includes several protective tunnels under sea-level that collapse when engineers attempt to keep them open. Nearly a dozen companies go bust. Today, the Hatch family owns Ragged Island, though the father won't allow his sons to visit the place. Still, one son is killed below, and only 30 years later does a new high-tech Hatch dredging operation get started, using the strongest titanium to shore up the very deeply buried Water Pit. When the Pit is finally drained enough to allow villainous Captain Neidelman to get to the buried treasure first, he discovers himself possessed by the fabulously jewel-encrusted but radioactive Sword of St. Michael, by which the archangel defeated Satan during war in heaven. The folding of such fantasy material into a generally realistic novel hurts not a whit. A tremendous storm at sea with staggeringly high waves will have you jumping up for a lifesaver. Unstoppable suspense and mystery.
