Vixen 03 is a Dirk Pitt adventure novel by Clive Cussler. Action hero Pitt stars in over 26 of his numerous novels and was introduced to many people in the fourth Pitt novel Raise The Titanic! in 1976. Cussler has several other character series on the go, written with other co-authors (meaning they are pumping out at least one new novel every few months). The Pitt adventures always seem to follow the same blueprint, but always deliver as well. They are what they are - entertaining.
I've seen this book around since I was a kid, intrigued by the plane under water, and wondered what mystery was aboard.
Vixen 03 starts with excitement in 1954, with a military plane on a secret uncharted mission going down for a crash landing in a snowy mountain clearing. Once the plane lands, they find the clearing was an ice covered lake, and the plane sinks.
Thirty four years later, Pitt is vacationing near the lake and discovers the plane, hidden all these years, and decides to explore it. He is the Special Projects Director for the National Underwater and Marine Agency (NUMA) and calls in his specialist team, as well as the Navy to explore it. The secret military cargo turns out to be canisters of a toxic biological weapon en route for testing in the Pacific, which no one wants to admit to. They decide to raise the plane in order to destroy the deadly cargo and discover several canisters are missing.
This leads to several other sub plots involving the African Army of Revolution trying to overthrow the government in South Africa, and a vengeful ex-Navy captain who steals a battleship equipped with the deadly toxin who wants to destroy Washington.
Cussler is the tops in adventure and has millions of fans. For me, Vixen 03 was completely far fetched but just what I expected. Exciting, plot rolled right along, decent characters. Pitt was an interesting hero, and for entertainment, it was good fun.
After wondering about this book for so long, in my mind it was going to be all about the dive, the wreckage and the recovery. This is only a third of the book, the rest devolves into political wrangling and posturing towards the explosive finale. A little heavy on the South African overthrow plot - I wanted to stay with the wrecked plane myself.
Loving books like The Poseidon Adventure from around the same time, I was hoping for something different, but still enjoyed it.
2010 edition / Paperback / 464 pages
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