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Hergé biographer Benoît Peeters described "The Red Sea Sharks" as a "complex, ambiguous, even labyrinthine" story which was "undoubtedly the book in which Hergé ventured furthest into the creation of his own universe". He thought that "Hergé enters a new phase" with "The Red Sea Sharks", as its author "seems to know his family of characters better and better, and he enjoys playing with them and his reader". Peeters noted that the book was "in some respects a continuation" of "Land of Black Gold", an assessment shared by Thompson, the Lofficiers, and Farr, all of whom described it as a partial sequel to the earlier book. Thompson added that "The Red Sea Sharks" "atoned for the relative failure" of "Land of Black Gold", believing that although it had a "rather hasty finish", it was "a first-rate thriller". The Lofficiers awarded it four out of five, stating that it was "very effective as a modern political thriller and far more believable than "The Calculus Affair"". They also opined that it provided an effective political commentary on the West's relationship with the Arab world. In their analysis, Tintin and Haddock seek to aid the Emir not because he is a good leader, but for their own selfish purposes (to get Abdullah out of Marlinspike), just as Western governments and corporations build alliances with Arab leaders guilty of human rights abuses in order to benefit their own interests.