A Book Review

                                       Spartan Gold

Clive Cussler with Grant Blackwood
Penguin Books
Rs. 299

It seems like there is a whole truckload of thrillers written these days based on ancient mysteries, mythical treasures and the modern day treasure hunters. Spartan Gold is another such offering. 

Remi and Sam Fargo are a husband-wife duo who chance upon a German U-Boat from the Second World War and it happens to contain an extremely rare bottle of wine from..hold your breath..Napoleon's Lost Cellar! 

A French conqueror, a Greek treasure, a Persian Invader, two German U-Boats, one Ukranian Mafia-Pin, his Russian go-to man and our two American adventurers..Whew!! That sounds mind boggling already! But a promising first hundred pages drag on and on to a rather predictable conclusion, and you are left with the feeling of being let down. Especially being a book on a treasure hunt, one would expect some clever clue solving. Cussler and Blackwood let down their fans on this front with hardly any pages devoted to it. Still, it's a somewhat interesting read mainly because of the friendly spousal banter between our protagonists and the innovative ways in which they get themselves out of trouble.

My rating: 3/5

(Read it once)