Riptide

by Douglas Preston
Lincoln Child

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From the New York Times bestselling authors of The Relic and Reliquary comes a new thriller of ancient treasure, cutting-edge technology-and death, as the world's last great mystery is unraveled at the very highest cost...Riptide

For generations, treasure hunters have tried to unlock the deadly puzzle known as the Water Pit: a labyrinth of shafts and tunnels that honeycombs the heart of a small island off the coast of Maine. Reputed to be the hiding place of pirate treasure, the Water Pit possesses an inexplicable ability to kill those who venture into it, from professionals to innocent explorers. But now one man has made a startling discovery: The Water Pit is actually a carefully designed fortress, conceived for pirates by a renowned seventeenth-century architect who hid his plans in code. Unlocking the code will break the curse of the Water Pit. Or will it? The most comprehensive, high-tech expedition ever assembled has come to Maine and to Dr. Malin Hatch, owner of the island. While the treasure hunters have their reasons for mounting this assault—$2 billion in gold—Hatch has his own motives to join them. For Hatch, whose brother died on Ragged Island thirty years before, the only escape from the curse is through the black swirling waters and bloodstained chambers of the Pit.

With more computing power than a small university, the recovery team slowly chips away at the mystery. But as the seekers try to conquer the Pit, men begin to die. Hatch is confronted with his childhood memories of the tragedy even as he is drawn into a complex relationship with a beautiful French diver. All the while, the last, secret chamber of the Pit waits to unleash the most lethal mystery of all...A thriller of the highest order, Riptide is an extraordinary novel of obsession, courage, and adventure. With each nerve-racking page we are swept into the mystery and the challenge of Ragged Island and forced to face the haunting question: Is the Water Pit a gateway to limitless treasure—or to hell itself?

Creators
Publisher

Hachette Audiobooks

Edition: Abridged
Release date

June 1, 2006
Formats
- OverDrive Listen audiobook
  - ISBN: 9781594838200
  - File size: 424603 KB
  - Duration: 14:44:35
Languages
- English
Reviews
- Publisher's Weekly
  
  June 1, 1998
  The authors' first and bestselling thriller, The Relic, hit the lists in part for its clever exploitation of an extraordinary setting--the 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 Pit--here 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 treasure--now worth $2 billion and including a mysterious relic, St. Michael's Sword--hidden 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 villains--the authors variously demonize the Pit, the Pit's designer, the crazed expedition leader and the Sword--and 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.
- AudioFile Magazine
  
  RIPTIDE is a rip-roaring thriller involving a pirate treasure horde, a Maine island redoubt booby-trapped by a seventeenth-century ecclesiastical architect and spy, and the usual assortment of fanatics driven mad by greed as their goal gets nearer, not to mention the obligatory hurricane winds rising to ratchet up the jeopardy. Surprisingly, the usually excellent Scott Brick has made the bizarre choice to deliver most sentences with the same singsong rhythm you would give to the lines ÒMerry Christmas to all, and to all, a good night.Ó Really. Without regard to pacing or sense, not caring if the words are Òwas ankle-deep in bloodÓ or Òopened a can of soup.Ó TREASURE ISLAND on steroids should have produced foolproof audio thrills, but, alas, not in this production. B.G. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine
- Library Journal
  
  March 1, 1998
  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 belonged--which 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.