Book Review: Treasure of Khan by Clive & Dirk Cussler

Treasure Of Khan by Clive Cussler
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Genghis Khan conquered half the world, now another Mongolian looks to conquer the rest through oil but inadvertently runs into the one man who can stop him. Treasure of Khan is the nineteenth book in Clive Cussler’s Dirk Pitt series and the second written with his son Dirk, as the elder Pitt returns to centerstage in a mostly land based adventure.

During the second failed Mongol invasion of Japan, a ship is swept out into the Pacific by a series of typhoons and survive long enough to land in the Hawaiian Islands. Several years later, reconstructing an old Polynesian ship and an elderly navigator the Mongol leader returns to China and a personal audience with Kublai Khan. In 1937, a British archaeologist unearths a box containing a scroll to the location of Genghis Khan burial location, but it is stolen by his Mongolian assistant as the archaeologist evacuates before the advancing Japanese. A relatively small oil company headed by Borjin, a Mongolian who is bent on taking control of the world oil market and re-uniting the Chinese province of Inner Mongolia—where he has found significant oil deposits buried at unusual depths—with Mongolia, has stolen a machine which can create an earthquake. He uses the machine to destroy major oil production facilities through the world, crippling China oil supply in a matter of weeks along with the rest of the worlds. He then uses this shortage to make an offer to supply China all the oil it needs. He demands that Inner Mongolia be ceded to Mongolia, and China pay market price for the oil he will supply them, which he guarantees will meet the colossal demands of the Chinese economy. China accepts this deal, not knowing of the hidden oil deposits they are handing to him. Dirk Pitt intervenes to end the situation and discovers that the grave of Genghis Khan has been located by Borjin, whose father stole the scroll to the burial location, and used the treasures to finance his company. Off the Big Island, Summer Pitt discovers a 13th-Century Chinese royal junk that eventually leads to Dirk Sr. figuring out where Kublai Khan’s tomb is located on the island from the other scroll that the elder Borjin did not take.

The return of the elder Dirk to the main character and the focus on Summer not being the damsel-in-distress Hawaiian subplot was a new wrinkle after the previous book. Both the main and subplots were well-written and resulted in a quick page turning story that is one of the best in the series. Unlike the previous novel, Borjin and his siblings were not memorable antagonists especially compared to some that the Pitts have faced in the past. Besides this one blemish, this second father-son effort by the Cusslers is a great follow up to their first.

Treasure of Khan is a particularly good installment in the decades-long Dirk Pitt franchise coming off the heels of another great previous installment. The decision to have Dirk Cussler join Clive in writing the series as so far paid off in a rise in quality.

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