Review: Like Indiana Jones, but at sea!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 12 21, 2013
Alex Tate and his buddy Sean Rylan are short on money and are coming perilously close to losing their boat, the Cantankerous II, when they receive a call from a Professor Kirby James, who's looking into a shipwreck the pair reported in the course of their travels.  Despite their reservations about attempting a dive near the site, they both know that if they don't go for the deal, their boat is as good as gone.  R.K. Sidler has a way with dialogue and prose alike, making the dialogue sound naturalistic and imbuing each of the characters with their own unique personalities.  The prose is descriptive, without going overboard (pun not intended!) and the dialogue does exactly what it's supposed to, by helping us to get a better sense of who these characters are as people while also simultaneously helping to move the plot along.  Sidler establishes a quick and exciting pace, and you feel yourself being pulled into the trip right along with Sean, Alex, Dee and the rest of the crew.This story has all the makings of a great adventure movie in the spirit of Jurassic Park, Ghost Ship, or The Abyss.  A ragtag crew of divers and researchers, looking for buried treasure with us as a fly on the wall for the entire trip. This book is in the tradition of some of the greats, like 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Treasure Island and others.  Sidler gives you plenty of time to get to know each of these characters, and you'll find yourself grinning at the moments of camaraderie in between stocking up for the trip and setting out to find the lost wreckage. The time Silder takes to build up these characters makes it even more interesting when things take a turn for the occult.