Ricky Yamamoto has trust issues – if push comes to shove, she always pushes back. When a dream trip to exotic Far East waters turns into a nightmare, she struggles to regain control. What seemed like an innocent environmental research trip turns out to be anything but: her millionaire bosses had a hidden agenda, the menu turned out to be vegan, and she didn’t have a gun when she needed one.
Ricky narrates, her observations powered with a lively humor, and Captain Rich is a great foil, with their ongoing love-hate relationship a highlight. The plot takes some time to really get moving, and then has so many twists (including a surprising personal connection) that readers will have to work some to keep up, but the snappy dialog, larger-than-life cast, and fascinating milieu keep the pages turning. “Give me warm, gin-clear water and colorful reefs,” Ricky declares, and her love for the sea sets her and the series apart, with this entry finding time for her thoughts on orca, threats to coral, and our changing oceans.
Also enlivening the book are some terrific diving scenes. Grogan delivers almost poetic descriptions of sea life and does a great job with the beauty of southeast Asia: a delta alive with tributaries and side-channels "was like a massive, shimmering fractal." Readers interested in diving technology will find much detail here, though Ricky & co. also find themselves in a number of action scenes, some of them on a Clive Cussler level of inventiveness. Through it all, Ricky shows a remarkable talent for both cool fatalism and self-preservation—she finds “a certain satisfaction” in kicking one adversary in the head—leaving readers to eagerly await what she'll get into next.
Takeaway: This scuba thriller series dives into danger with an agreeably light touch.
Great for fans of: Micki Browning’s Beached, Andrew Mayne’s The Girl Beneath the Sea.
Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A-
Marketing copy: B+
