Top 15 Best Clive Cussler Books Updated 04 /2024

There are so many great Clive Cussler books out there, why did we decide to put together this list? Well, the best-selling author behind the popular adventure novels about Dirk Pitt died this week at the age of 88. We wanted to celebrate his life by highlighting some of his most important books.

Dirk Pitt was first introduced to the world in the mid-1970s by Clive Cussler, who started writing in 1965. He went on to write 25 books about him over the years.

List of  best books by Cussler with Pitt and other books from his other series are shown below. Our editorial team and Clive Cussler fans have helped us make this list.

The Adventures of Vin Fiz (Lacey & Casey, #1)

When Lacey and Casey Nicefolk were ten, they always wanted to fly, but kids can't fly. Or can they? If they know the mysterious Sucoh Sucop, a man who says he has an enchanted box that can make any toy into the real thing, they can.

Before you know it, the twins and their basset hound, Floopy, are flying across the country in a real-life Wright brothers biplane. They call it Vin Fiz, after Casey's favorite grape soda.

They will have to be brave many times over to make it to New York. They're lucky to have Vin Fiz on their side!

Valhalla Rising (Dirk Pitt #16). 

In the middle of its first trip, a luxury cruise ship with new engines suddenly bursts into flames and sinks. It doesn't sound any alarms, and its sprinkler system doesn't work. Dirk Pitt, a special projects director for NUMA, is near and sees smoke. He runs to help.

A new technology on the ship can't be saved, but the engineer's daughter, Kelly Egan, can. He helps her escape with her father's work in a leather briefcase.

When Egan is trying to find out what her father's inventions are worth, Pitt is hired by maritime insurers to look into the wreckage. This is what he does for them.

Both of them aren't ready for the mechanical wonders they'll soon have to deal with. In the stories of Viking explorers or Jules Verne, you might read about machines that were only in stories. Pitt and Egan may be their only hope when an oil tycoon with his own plan shows up.

Before the trip is over, Pitt will fight a power-hungry millionaire, travel to a place only Captain Nemo could have seen, and learn some shocking things about his own past.

Sahara (Dirk Pitt, #11).

One of Clive Cussler's books has been made into a movie. This is one of them. 1996 in Egypt. On the Nile, DIRK PITT stops an assassination attempt on a beautiful U.N. scientist who is studying a disease that is making thousands of North Africans go crazy, eat each other, and die.

The raging epidemic is thought to be caused by a huge amount of pollution that could wipe out all life in the world's seas. Pitt and his team, armed with an amazing, state-of-the-art yacht, run a race against a billionaire industrialist and a bloodthirsty West African tyrant who wants to destroy the world.

During his journey through the desert, Pitt finds a gold mine run by slaves. He also solves two long-running mysteries: the fate of a Civil War ironclad and its connection to Lincoln's assassination, and the last flight of a long-lost female pilot.

This is Dirk Pitt's last chance to make a stand in the Sahara. The world can't afford to lose this fight.

Deep Six (Dirk Pitt, #7).

In the ocean, a deadly tide of poison flows into the water. In the middle of the empty northern Pacific, a ghost ship sails by on its own. A luxury Soviet liner is turned into a funeral pyre by a fire that starts on board it. The presidential yacht sails the Potomac River at night, and the President doesn't leave a trail.

Dirk Pitt takes on a sinister Asian shipping empire across the world in a game of nerves. In his most dangerous and fast-paced adventure, he fights to save the US government and get one last shot at revenge.

The Mediterranean Caper (Dirk Pitt, #2)

In Greece, a U.S. air force base has been attacked by a plane from World War I. The plane is thought to be a famous yellow Albatros that was lost at sea in 1918.

They have to find out what happened and how it's linked to sabotage against a scientific expedition, a smuggling ring from across the world, and a dark-haired beauty with dangerous secrets, so they can figure out how it all fits together.

Pitt's search for answers will take him from a luxurious villa on an island to a moving freighter that is mysteriously empty of crew, to a huge underwater cavern that is home to the heart of a criminal operation that is bigger and more complicated than he ever thought possible. The mastermind of the operation would kill to protect it.

Raise the Titanic! (Dirk Pitt, #4)

In this book in the #1 New York Times-bestselling series, marine explorer Dirk Pitt is told by the Pentagon that he must find and save important material from the world's most famous maritime disaster.

The President's secret task force has come up with a new defense weapon that uses a very rare radioactive element. Dirk Pitt has followed a twisted trail to a secret cache of the substance.

After racing against storms, Soviet spies, and a timer, Pitt embarks on his most thrilling mission yet: to raise the shipwreck of the century from the depths where it was buried.

Dragon (Dirk Pitt, #10)

In 1945, two US bombers with atomic bombs take off from the US air base in Japan. Only one person makes it.

Japan's cargo ship bound for the United States explodes, taking with it a Norwegian ship that was on its way to the United States. Japanese fanatics have come up with a terrifying plan to wreak havoc and destroy the Western world. It's Dirk Pitt's job to figure out what's going on, and he's going to fight back in a big way.

Bureaucrats in Washington, D.C., are scrambling, but a brutal industrialist is in charge of his blackmail scheme from a secret island control center. They also have robots that kill and a human-hunting samurai warrior's descendant. Dirk, the hero of the games Sahara and Inca Gold, is taking on all of these bad guys! A tidal wave of destruction is waiting to be set off on the ocean floor. Pitt has the key.

Inca Gold (Dirk Pitt, #12)

At some point in the past, a fleet of boats mysteriously came to rest on an island in an inland sea. You can find the golden treasure of an ancient Andean people there. Then, they and their treasure went back into history. This is the first time anyone has seen it.

This is what happened in 1998: Dirk Pitt dives into an ancient sacrificial pool in the Ande Mountains of Peru, saving two U.S. archaeologists who were going to drown. But his death-defying rescue is only the beginning, as it draws the brave Pitt into a vortex of darkness and danger, corruption, and betrayal, which he can't escape from any longer.

In the Andes, a sinister crime syndicate has found a long-lost treasure worth almost a billion dollars. It was found on the banks of a hidden underground river that flows beneath a Mexican desert. The syndicate is on a mission to get their hands on the golden prize and kill the only person who can stop them.

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