Title: Spartan Gold (A Fargo Adventure)

Author: Clive Cussler

Pages: 510

Hi all,

I don’t know if you have this where you live, but we have a system here where I live that there is a bookshelf in out small town with donated books. You can go and take one and then return it once you are done with it. You may even leave some books there. This way books don’t get thrown away straight away.

I was curious whether there were some interesting options that were available there and got lucky with two books. This review is about the first of those. It was a book from the renowned author Clive Cussler. I haven’t read a book of his collective before, nor have I heard what they were about, but the book summary at the back of the book was quite interesting and prompted me to borrow it.

The book is broken down into two main chapters and then below the second main chapter lies the full story of the rest of the book.

• Chapter 1 takes you to a moment among Napoleon and his troops on their way back from Italy to France over the Alps. His lieutenant Laurent and scouts have discovered something in a cave nearby and bring him to the location to see their discovery.

• Chapter 2 we are introduced to the two main opposing characters: Sam- and Remi Fargo and Bondaruk.
  • Bondaruk grew up in a small village in the Middle East during the Soviet era and became a rebellion leader against the invasion of the Soviets in their country. After the Soviet Union collapse he had amassed a large fortune and had expanded his reach on the black market. To get out of public eye he had acquired for himself an estate in Ukraine and was the new Mafia leader of the region. During his years of fighting the Soviets he had learned that a ancient historical figure (Xerxes) had originated from the region where he grew up and therefore he became convinced that he must have been related to this great figure. In his later years he started to grow himself a collection of historical artefacts from this era.
  • Sam- and Remi Fargo had grown up in America and made their wealth after selling his successful business. From the profits they went into early retirement and spent their time to be treasure hunters.

While Bondaruk had hired some people to find a particular kind of treasure, Sam and Remi were busy to search for a completely different treasure. They were in a local town in America and were trying to search the treasure of a local bandit from the 1800s, when they stumbled on a submarine in the river of the town. In it they find a bottle that is quite peculiar as well as the diary from the World War 2 captain that had driven it there.

They first go to a local friend and antiques dealer to help them discover what the bottle could mean. They find him kidnapped and rescue him but are now aware that this discovery will not go without further trouble in the future.

They eventually discover that this bottle may be one of the twelve bottles from Napoleons mysterious lost treasure. Their research leads them to Rum Cay (in the Caribbean) where the Nazi’s had a secret station and locate another submarine. Not getting any further they make their way to the place where Napoleon was sent into exile (island Elba) and also to the second island where he was sent to exile (St. Helena) in the hopes of discovering more. Thanks to a late descendant of Lieutenant Laurent they are permitted to inspect his grave and discover a cipher that they can use to decode the code left behind in the bottle. By chance, they also discover that one of the captains that had driven the submarines they found before was still alive and visit him to learn more of the bottles.

The captain doesn’t know of their historical significance, but only remarks that they found these in a prison on the island that became famous for the novel ‘The Count of Monte Cristo’. They have been fortunate to be able to decipher the codes on the bottles. However, the solved code only translates into further riddles, which the Fargo’s manage to solve thanks to lots of research and making some assumptions and guesses what they could have meant at the time of Napoleon. Their trail leads them to search for bottles in Bayern and Italy and is successful.

During all their travels, they are pursued by Bondaruk’s men, and even have a few close encounters where their lives are threatened.

In the end, they find their way to the Swiss Alps and find the cave where the secret treasure was hidden. Bondaruk and his men have also successfully traced their trail and they have a final encounter with the man who wants to claim the treasure as his own due to a delusional historical ancestral lineage.

Summary:

You learn a little bit of history, you are encountered with riddles that seem to be impossible to solve and you are right next to Sam and Remi as they are in pursuit and pursued to find a treasure that the history records had denounced for so long. You simply want to continue reading and see what comes next and whether they will make it out of the tricky situations they find themselves in constantly. The book receives a rating of 4/5.

I hope this author is someone that you will incorporate into your collection of adventure tales.