I really enjoyed the first three novels in the Isaac Bell series, especially The Wrecker, however, the last two have fallen somewhat short. In this outing, Bell is on the trail of a German ex-army officer nicknamed The Akrobat. Bell first encounters him on board The Mauretania while returning from Europe. The Akrobat is in the process of trying to kidnap two scientists and their new invention. But what is the invention and why is it so important to the Germans? This novel takes place sometime between 1910 and 1912 based on mentioning The Titanic which has not yet sailed. The action moves from the ship at sea to Hollywood where it turns out the new invention is a machine to produce Talkie Pictures. The Germans are interested in this for the propaganda purposes it could be used for in trying to get other countries on their side prior to WWI. For me, this just wasn't a very good pretext for the plot of the story. Although there was a lot of action, somehow, this one just didn't measure up to the earlier books in the series. Hopefully, the next in the series will be better.
What the author(s) do with this series: Clive Cussler and Justin Scott know how to write a book. This is part of the series called the Isaac Bell Adventures. This paragraph applies to all books in this series. Isaac is an investigator for a private firm whose motto is that the always get their man The books are set in the early 1900's and are based on the author's fascination with the leading technologies of the time things like fast (by their standards) trains, automobiles and ships. New technologies are introduced like aeroplanes and talking pictures. Depending on the book, many of the social issues of the day are woven into the story such as strikes and strike breakers, gangs running businesses, stock speculators and manipulators as well as later in the series the storm clouds of what will become World War I. The author is skilled at bringing in the details of how society works in that era, such as how beef makes it to NYC, or how different strata of society operate in SFO
Do you need to read this series in order: Probably not, but I think you will miss out on the character development of the protagonist and his lady friend.
Triggers: there is an ample supply of violence in this book it's at a high level -- people die, from violence (fires, gun shots, bombs, crashes, knives, beatings, accidents). Some of the violence is directed at kids.
The Thief is about the swirling war clouds of WWI and the nascent ;moving pictures business (Edison Trust, monopolies). Of the books in this series this is the best one so far.
