Skeleton Coast: A Novel From The Oregon Files

Written by Clive Cussler and Jack Du Brul

Narrated by Scott Brick

The unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition of Clive Cussler and Jack du Brul's Skeleton Coast, the debut title in the ever-popular Oregon Files novels. Read by the award-winning narrator Scott Brick.

1896: Four Englishmen flee for their lives across the merciless Kalahari Desert, carrying a stolen fortune in raw diamonds, and hunted by a fierce African tribe. The thieves manage to reach the waiting HMS Rove - only to die with their pursuers in a vicious storm that buries them all under tons of sand...

The present day: Juan Cabrillo and the crew of the covert combat ship Oregon have barely escaped a mission on the Congo River when they intercept a mayday from a defenceless boat under fire off the African coast. Cabrillo takes action, saving the beautiful Sloane Macintyre - who's looking for a long-submerged ship that may hold a fortune in diamonds. But what surprises Cabrillo is her story about a crazy fisherman who claims to have been attacked in the same area on the open sea by giant metal snakes.

What begins as a snake hunt leads Cabrillo on to the trail of a far more lethal quarry - a deranged militant and his followers who plan to unleash the devastating power of nature itself against all who oppose them.

In his latest bestseller, Clive Cussler, the Grandmaster of Adventure, shows once again that when it comes to compelling action, he's the man to beat.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin UK Audio
• Release date: Jun 1, 2011
• ISBN: 9780141972138

Clive Cussler

Clive Cussler was an underwater explorer and adventure novelist. He was the founder and chairman of the National Underwater and Marine Agency (NUMA), which has discovered more than 60 shipwreck sites and numerous other notable underwater wrecks. He was the sole author or main author of more than 80 books, many including the popular character Dirk Pitt. He passed away in 2020.

Reviews for Skeleton Coast

[andrew1theqm · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Overall this was an enjoyable book. I particularly enjoyed the first chapter, which gave the backstory from the 19th Century, and was a good read on it's own. There was plenty of action, and if I was to be very picky possibly too much action which detracted to a certain extent from the flow if the story (at least for me!). I did enjoy the book, the characters, the plot line, the dialogue, however I feel it could have benefited from shorter chapters in places. It is an enjoyable series but with a few tweaks could easily be lifted to an excellent series. I do intend to continue reading the series.

[heatherlinc · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Like many of Cussler's books this started slowly as plot and characters were developed, but after that it was great. Lots of action and pure entertainment.

[bhabeck-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Skeleton Coast is the fourth book of the series, The Oregon Files. In this installment, the crew of The Oregon take on African rebel armies, eco terrorists, "giant snakes" and search for a cache of lost diamonds - all in a day's work. As usual, this is a fun, adrenaline-filled story with lots of high-tech weaponry and feats of derring-do.Rating: 4 Stars.

[eadieb-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Book DescriptionJuan Cabrillo and the crew of the covert combat ship Oregon have barely escaped a mission on the Congo River when they intercept a mayday from a defenseless boat under fire off the African coast. Cabrillo takes action, saving the beautiful Sloane Macintyre-who's looking for a long-submerged ship that may hold a fortune in diamonds. But what surprises Cabrillo is her story about a crazy fisherman who claims to have been attacked on the open sea by giant metal snakes in the same area.What begins as a snake hunt leads Cabrillo onto the trail of a far more lethal quarry -- a deranged militant and his followers who plan to unleash the devastating power of nature itself against all who oppose them. My ReviewThis was the 4th book in the Oregon series. I did enjoy the story lines but some of the technical stuff is way over my head. I like the crew members very much and find the characters very interesting. I will continue reading on as I want to see what else Juan Cabrillo and crew will get involved it. I would recommend these books to those who love adventure stories.

[lbswiener · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Skeleton Coast is a book with a lot of plots. There of course is danger in solving all of the problems. The least of the troubles was discovering the ship eight miles off of the coast that had bags of uncut diamonds. Four stars were awarded to this book. It is a good story with all of the loose ends completed at the end of the book.

[jpsnow · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Fast paced and well organized story intertwining sub-plots of an elite crew of mercenaries, ecoterrorism and a long-lost ship of treasure.

[bicyclewriter · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

The storytelling is severely hampered by the silly political sermonizing of the author. I'm sure great propagandists from Stalin or Hitler would be proud of how the author has taken a group of "good guys", and created fiction that turns them into villains.

The essence of the story is that Cabrillo and crew must save the world from eco-terrorists. The author then proceeds to look for every opportunity to deliver a sermon about the evils of all the conservationists and environmentalists in the world, lumping them all together as crazy hippies who just don't understand how the world works, and creating a world where they're among the most evil forces we face.

I'm a hunter and fisherman. I spend a great deal of time outdoors. I consider myself a conservationist, and at times perhaps an environmentalist. I found the book deeply offensive to any shred of common sense or sensibility, and kept wondering whether the author was on the payroll for Big Oil in general, or perhaps for BP or Exxon.

I've read an awful lot of stuff from the Cussler stable, and I find this particular author from his stable to be a bit irritating in his tendency to try and be a propagandist for his political views. This book takes that beyond irritating and well into the world of offensive. I won't be buying any more from this series, and it's certainly turned me off to anything else from the stable for quite a while.

[dcarlin-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Another audio book, another reader and a different style of presentation. However, as with most of Clive Cussler’s books this was also a great adventure. Beautiful women, savages and murder along with bags full of diamonds. What more could one ask for. Of course – an environmental terrorist. Well worth the read.

[hedgepeth_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book was my introduction to the Oregon and its crew. It was refreshing to see a lead character who was an amputee. While the prosthesis allowed for some items that even 007 would envy, Cabrillo's loss of a leg does not seem to hinder him. The only drawback from this trade paperback edition were some editing errors; however, they should not discourage the reader from one heck of a good yarn.

[buffalogr · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Good book, but it dragged on for awhile. Listened to it and it had several twists and unpredictable turns that made it enjoyable. I think I'll listen to another from Cussler's Oregon series.

[nm4fall074a4dahlke · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

it is by far one of the best books i have ever read. it is about a group of mercenaries who is all organized into a corparation. and they all operate from a ship. it looks like an extremely old and falling apart cargo ship. but the entire ship bristles with 30 caliber machine guns, 20 millimeter gatlingguns, and a state of the art prupolsion system. in this book they are hired to sell weapons to african militias to track and aprehend them.but they end up stopping a group of ecoterrosts, rescuing a famous scientist, and finding billions of dalloars worth of diamonds.

[mswallack_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Probably a better story than Dark Watch, Skeleton Coast still isn't as interesting as the Dirk Pitt novels. Several of the action sequences were exciting and the cameo at the end was fun (if too brief). However, there were several times when I wanted the story to delve more deeply into some of the ideas and plot avenues. Plus, I couldn't help but feeling that a particular sequence toward the end of the book was a complete ripoff of one of the fun action sequences from the film Sahara (a Dirk Pitt film).

[oldbookswine · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

While tracing an missing African leader, The Oregon crew finds treasure and enivormental terriorism make for an exciting adventure. Does however reminds this reader of an earlier story Sahara.