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Spartan Gold is the first Fargo Adventures novel in the long sub-franchise Clive Cussler ran with Grant Blackwood as co-author and primary plotter. Sam and Remi Fargo are a husband-and-wife treasure-hunting team with the financial resources to pursue any historical mystery that catches their interest. The first book sends them after a piece of Napoleonic-era gold that has been hidden in central Europe for two centuries.
Blackwood handles the Cussler formula with appropriate respect for the source. The historical research is light but consistent. The action sequences are well-staged. The married-couple dynamic is the most genuinely interesting thing about the series; the partnership rhythm gives the books a kind of energy that the Cussler-bachelor-hero novels did not have.
Three stars. Reliable Cussler-brand entertainment. Recommended to readers of treasure-hunt thrillers and to fans of the Cussler back catalog.
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