Title: The Romanov Ransom

Author: Clive Cussler

Pages: 540

Hi all,

In review 007-2023 I started off with a new read from a different author and in this review I am pleased to share a new adventure that Sam and Remi have gotten themselves tangled into yet again.

This book is split into 89 chapters that simply won’t let you go without the feeling of wanting to continue reading to discover what happens next on their journey.

• Prologue
  • 1917, the Bolsheviks have taken control of most parts of the country and have the royal family as hostages. They have sent a letter of ransom to the Tsar mother who has just packed the last of three crates that were filled with the family’s last treasures. She sends the treasure off, but has kept one piece of the family treasure for sentimental reasons.
  • 1945, Nazi Germany has lost the war and many Nazi officers are fleeing via the Ratlines to South America to flee persecution. One family had lost their son who had lost his life when he rebelled against the Nazi government. As a result, they left the country and hoped to build a new life in Argentina. When the war ended, it was unfortunate that Nazi followers chose the same destination. One officer was related to the family that had lost their rebel son. He asked if their youngest son would aid him in a task, in return for a handsome reward. The boy would have refused his uncle had it not been for his mother’s illness.
• Chapter 1 – 20 Marakesh, Marocco
  • The Fargo Foundation often provides funds to archeology researchers to search for artefacts. One such team was searching for a plane that had crashed in Marocco after WW2, which had been used to smuggled Nazi officers out of Europe to Marocco and then with a new plane to South America.
  • The two researchers haven’t been heard of for a few days and therefore Sam and Remi Fargo made their way there to see whether they were alright.
  • They found a guide that led them to where the researchers were last seen and then search the site. They even have climbing gear with them since one mountain had been of particular interest to them.
  • They find the two and make their way back, but are attacked by some men. However, they manage to get away, but one of their team was taken hostage by their pursuers.
  • They had managed to find the plane as well as a bag that contained some odd items.
  • They photograph the items very detailed and then hand them over to the criminals to free their friend.
  • However, they believe that what the items they found in the bag somehow have to do with the treasures that the Nazi officials stole and transported out of the country before they were completely overrun by Allied nations.
• Chapter 21 – 28 Kaliningrad, Russia
  • They have traveled to Kaliningrad where they have found a researcher that has specialized in the history of the treasures that were stolen by the Nazi occupiers.
  • They are not able to clarify what treasure it may have been that was referred to in the documents from their aeroplane wreckage, however, they receive the tip that there had been one central location where all the stole treasures were navigated out of Europe and they head to Wroclaw, a former German territory.
  • Another thing they discover us that they are not merely pursued by one group of criminals, but two separate ones. The one is a Russian heiress to a notorious mafia boss. The other is a German businessman that has ties to the organization Werewolf, which was an organization formed in the latter part of the WW2 and tasked to collect treasures abroad to finance sabotage acts that would result in another WW between America and Russia. This would have allowed them to take over Germany once again and rebuild the Fourth Reich.
• Chapter 29 – 48 Wroclaw, Poland
  • In Wroclaw they are searching for a guide that can lead them to the areas where there are underground tunnels built to remove the treasures discretely.
  • They locate one guide that has lived a hermit life and he brings them to one tunnel that he believes to be one that could fit their description.
  • Here, they find some objects that they had also found in the aeroplane in Marocco. However, they also find an enigma machine. Unfortunately they have not much time to research more since they are still being pursued and therefore flee yet again.
  • However, they gain an ally in a place they would have least expected. This ally is kidnapped and the ransom levied are the items that they had found in the tunnels in Poland.
• Chapter 49 – 57 Berlin, Germany
  • They come together in Berlin where the exchange is supposed to take place. However, they are skeptical whether they will as lucky again as they were with their ransom exchange in Marocco and therefore decide to free the prisoner themselves, before the ransom is due for payment.
• Chapter 58 – 61 Muenster, Germany
  • After saving their friend, they leave for a castle where a family lawyer is located who examines for them one of the objects they were supposed to hand over in the ransom.
  • Though this clue doesn’t directly help them to confirm what kind of treasure they are looking at, they do discover that they are on the right track (i.e. it relates to the Nazi officials that fled and what they tried to smuggle out with them).
• Chapter 62 – 89 Buenos Aires, Argentina
  • After collecting some additional clues, they head for Argentina to find the last living relative of one former Nazi official.
  • Together, they make their way to locate the plane that his great-grandfather supposedly took and that was lost in the mountains.

What happens next, is what you will need to find out by reading the remaining chapters of the book. Let’s call it Readers secret haha.

Summary:

I hope you have enjoyed the description and that I may have convinced you to give this writer a chance to lead you on one of his amazing adventures :). The book was quick to read, full of quizzes to solve and also interesting parts of history interwoven into the whole mix. The book receives a rating of 4.2/5.