Clive Cussler’s Dirk Pitt novels often focus on one or more current geopolitical events. The latest one, Arctic Drift, is no different, centering on a worldwide financial crisis in 2011, coupled with global warming woes.

The villain this time around is a Canadian billionaire named Mitchell Goyette who is publicly admired for his green industry empire. However, covertly he is heavily invested in the dirty oil and gas industries.

The United States faces a financial meltdown, aggravated by the threat of an international boycott if the country does not decrease its carbon dioxide emissions from coal fired power plants. Canada holds the key to America’s salvation in the form or an enormous wealth of natural gas reserves.

The sitting American president, who in 2011 is neither Democratic nor Republican but an independent, hopes to use Canadian natural gas to replace coal for producing electricity and even for powering cars converted to run on natural gas.

However, Goyette is in a perfect position to take advantage of the United State’s desperate gamble, and he does so without conscience. To the Canadian public, Goyette is an environmental hero who invests millions in wind power and carbon sequestration. Unbeknownst to the masses, he’s unscrupulously involved in every dirty industry that will make him more money, in particular the oil sands of Athabasca, Alberta, and the Melville natural gas fields of the Canadian Arctic, over which he has full control.

The unconscionable Goyette strikes a deal with the American government to sell nearly limitless supplies of Melville natural gas at market value, which would help the U.S. avert the escalating energy crisis, a financial meltdown, and an international trade boycott. But when Goyette is able to secretly work out a better deal with China, he does not hesitate to break his agreement with the U.S. and leave the southern neighbor high and dry.

(In the real world, any business in breach of such a huge and important contract would probably not survive. But it’s a good set-up for an intriguing story line.)

But Goyette’s double-dealing with China and the U.S. pales in comparison to some of his other crimes, which include political assassination, intentional dumping of toxic waste that kills humans and wildlife, theft, vandalizing, bribery of high ranking officials, and worst of all, nearly instigating a war between Canada and the U.S.

Of course, what Goyette fails to take into consideration is Dirk Pitt, the hero of twenty novels by Clive Cussler, including this most recent installment. In the end, Pitt manages to wreak havoc with all of Goyette’s ill-willed plans.

Arctic Drift is an excellent and seamless co-authorship between Clive Cussler and his son, Dirk Cussler. It is hard to tell the penmanship of one apart from the other throughout the book. Whatever sections Dirk Cussler wrote, he did an excellent job of adopting Clive’s inimitable style. (That’s an intentional oxymoron.)

Arctic Drift is a thrilling read in classic Clive Cussler style. You will not be disappointed. It may not be the edge-of-your-seat non-stop action from cover-to-cover as in some of the older Cussler works, but it’s still an exciting, intriguing and brilliantly written story that keeps your attention and makes you want to keep reading. The thugs are as smart as they are sinister, and the heroes as pure as Arctic ice.

Britt Hellman lives in Western North Carolina with her spouse and three children. She operates her own copywriting company from home. Clive Cussler has been one of her favorite authors since she read his Trojan Odyssey in 2003. She writes reviews like this one on Arctic Drift, by Clive and Dirk Cussler, for the fun of sharing that excitement.