A maritime investigator tries to thwart a sinister plan that entails a bomb sinking either a cargo vessel or a passenger-loaded cruise ship in this thriller.

When Rob Spencer, a cruise line’s director of fleet security, hears of a possible dirty-bomb attack on a ship, he contacts his pal Brick Morgan of Morgan Maritime Investigations. Brick, based in Tacoma, Washington, won’t be slowed down by FBI protocols, and time is a factor, especially since the targeted vessel is unknown. Brick starts with a chemistry teacher who told Rob’s probation-officer brother, Terry, that someone wants to utilize his expertise to build explosives. Only readers know that crime boss Gaston Rizzo is behind the scheme, though the idea belongs to an unidentified client who, along with Rizzo and his associates, could make millions. Brick’s investigation gets him entangled in a murder as well as the attempted blackmail of a California businessman to deliver a secretive package. The feds soon enter the picture, and Brick’s eventually partnered with Special Agent Nicole Cofield. Unfortunately, the baddies have their eyes on Brick, knowing he’s on the case, and more bodies crop up before he and Nicole can even find a bomb. Though some aspects of the mystery are revealed early (for example, the client’s name), Anderson (High Seas Darkness, 2014, etc.) introduces a multitude of vivid characters whose plot significance isn’t immediately known. They’re akin to puzzle pieces waiting to connect; one particular character’s surprise relation to another leads to an unforgettable shock near the end. Parts of the narrative, however, seem inessential. Brick, for example, first investigates a cruise-ship passenger who’s gone overboard in an apparent suicide; it’s an entertaining subplot, but it also delays the main story, which is unrelated. Regardless, once the latter starts, its rapid pace doesn’t waver, with a “tick-tock” refrain stamped at the close of chapters, constant reminders that the bomb deadline is coming up.

Characters shrouded in mystery and a ticking-clock scenario elevate suspense in this stirring crime tale.

In Anderson’s (The Drummer, 2012) thriller, a private investigator faces off against radical Islamic terrorists who have targeted a line of cruise ships.
Former cop Brick Morgan is the founder of Morgan Maritime Investigations. He’s contracted his efficient, no-nonsense services to Nobility Cruise Line. When a woman named Carolyn Luna is drugged and raped aboard the Matisse Under the Stars, Chief Security Officer Yvette Fuentes requests Morgan’s help finding the perpetrator before the FBI gets involved. Combining their suave investigative efforts, Morgan and Fuentes arrest bartender Sanan Jaidee in record time. To celebrate, Morgan decides to enjoy the rest of the cruise as it leaves Hawaii for the mainland United States. Trouble erupts again when dozens of passengers become ill from what seems to be a norovirus. However, the sickness actually comes from the release of poisonous abrin by radical Islamist Yusuf Al Omar. Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C., the president has instructed the FBI to mislabel terrorist threats as “workplace violence” in an effort to cool tensions between mainstream Islam and America. How will this decision affect Morgan and Fuentes? They survived the first Matisse incident, but now they’re embroiled in a more vicious attack. Anderson juggles an impressive array of narrative elements—from disease containment aboard ships to international submarine surveillance—resulting in a quickly paced, satisfying narrative. Morgan is a classic tough-guy-gentleman, irresistible to women and terrifying to lawbreakers. The villains are also multidimensional, as when Jaidee rages about Luna: “That blonde...would spend more money on her cruise than he would make in a year.” There’s also a staggering amount of technical detail about cruise liner engineering and operations, which adds a layer of stark realism to the plot. Some readers, however, may bridle at the off-color jokes (as only beat cops can tell) and campy portrayals of women, as when Fuentes “suggestively pulled [the french fry] into and out of her pursed lips.” Overall, though, there’s an admirable anti-terror message here that hopes to encourage increased vigilance and cooperation between politicians and people.
A patriotic thriller that’s not for the faint of heart.