I'm interrupting low-content mode with a disappointing announcement. The Mediterranean Caper sucks.
I'm in Milwaukee on my layover to Nashville and I've got nothing to read for the rest of the trip now. I only got to about page 36 of the book before "hero" Dirk Pitt slapped a woman he'd just met two minutes ago. His reason: she was still grieving over the husband she'd lost in a car accident nine years before.
Here's Dirk's explanation:
"That torch you carry around is as worn out as an overcoat. I'm surprised someone hasn't taken you over a knee and spanked it off. So your husband was dashing. So what? He's dead and buried, and mourning over him for all these years won't resurrect him from the grave. Lock away his memory somewhere and forget him. You're a beautiful woman - you don't belong chained to a coffin full of bones. You belong to every man who turns and admires you as you pass by and who longs to posses you."I repeat: he met this woman two minutes ago. Classy.
Of course she immediately sleeps with him.*
Because I was stuck on the plane with nothing else to read, I trudged forward, but finally gave up when Cussler hinted that Dirk doesn't know that dinosaurs and humans never existed at the same time. Or maybe it was when Dirk throws a temper tantrum for no good reason than that the scene was getting a little stale and needed livening up. So much for Cussler's Dirk Pitt. I don't care if it was written thirty years ago, I can't get through it. I'll stick with the Matthew McConaughey version.
*I hear that it's revealed later that the girl has a reason for having sex with this jerk, but that doesn't make his belting her any easier to get past.
