Double Cross by Patrick Woodrow

[covediver]

In this 2005 action-adventure mystery, we meet Ed Strachan a talented if somewhat unlucky underwater photographer who must solve a 60-year old puzzle that leads to his "inheritance" which will make him wealthy, but at a price. Along the way, he has run ins with authorities in the ABC islands, stays one step ahead of a flawed Dutch Interpol agent, hooks up with a beautiful American diver, and battles a Japanese organized crime syndicate. His inheritance is wrapped in an oft repeated nursurey rhyme and an hierloom pair of cufflinks engraved with the local of his treasure. Its a pretty good story with a balance of topside and underwater action; sympathetic characters; and some real bad guys. It may be a bit hard to find, but if you come across it in a second hand book store, definitely worth reading.

 

[Sam Miller III]

Great Review!

So far no second hand book stores have any dive fiction...But lots of PADI books...

Must be a glut of dive fiction books in Alaska...

SDM

 

[covediver]

I guess I have been lucky. In the 1990s, I could access Acre of Books in Long Beach and there was a specialty store in Ventura that stocked ocean related titles. In Anchorage, I have Titlewave Books which has a large nautical collection because the owner is a tech diver and discovers historic shipwrecks around the state. When I get to Juneau. amybe once a year, I visit the used bookshops there and browse to find many nautical and dive titles. Otherwise I rely on the internet search engine Addall books
AddALL Used and Out of Print book search

 

[Sam Miller III]

I was just in anchorage -- sun of a gun -- two years ago...was not aware of the book store.

I lived in Long Beach for a number of years and was a regular at "Acre of books" in the 1950s...Since I now live 250 miles distant it has been years since my last visit. I assume the are still in business?

I have a number of fictional soft cover (paper back) dive books which have been packed away for years..perhaps I should retrive them.

In the 1990 I had a dedicated column in Discover Diving (DD) "The way it was." The editor at that Susan Tunis had a rather large collection of paper back fictional dive books. The magazine was aquired in a package along with SDM etc and DD was no more as was my column as was Susan's position.

When I presented the first US Diving bibliophile meeting in 1993, dive books were rather common on book shelves. We at that time did not look with favor up on soft cover books or fictional books, although one of the attendees had a presentable collection of fiction paper backs..

I do have one fictional paper back The Deadly Mermaid by James Phillips, 1954,lCCC 54-7511..It is only 190 pages so I just might break down and read it.

Keep up the good work,

SDM

 

[covediver]

Acre of Books closed about five years ago. When I would travel to socal recently, I would try to come back through portland in order to take the metro rail downtown to Powells. Routing changes don't allow that anymore.

Discover Diving brings back lots of memories. I loved the media back then, Underwater USA, Discover Diving, California Diving News and several other glossies. I wrote news and features for some of them; that market has really changed in recent years like everything else.

Yes, there seem to be fewer books on diving on bookshelves. The think the most that I have seen recently are the wreck-tec books like Deep Desent, Shadow Divers, etc. that appeared one right after another for about two years. I do note that the need for content on Kindle has spawned a new wave of dive publications. I expect some of it will be good while most of it will be bad to mediocre. While digital technology may have helped make great photographers out of hobbyists, the same cannot be said for writers.

I love dive fiction and all kinds of books on the ocean. I will be profiling some of them from time to time, especially those that have made a personal connection with me.