THE EXPLORER'S CODE
By: Kitty Pilgrim
Scribner: New York
2011 (HC)
Former CNN journalist and co-anchor Kitty Pilgrim has
written an often-charming, sometimes puzzling adventure yarn that takes its
protagonists from the high society enclaves of Monaco to the frozen wastes
of arctic Norway, with numerous stops in between.
Briefly stated, the novel follows the adventures of the
incredibly handsome and super-wealthy archaeologist John Sinclair and the
lovely young oceanographer (and orphan) Cordelia Stapleton on a treasure
hunt across much of Europe. As the story opens, Cordelia has been convinced
to take a break from her deep-sea research off the coast of California and
journey to Monaco to receive a posthumous award for her great-great
grandfather Elliott Stapleton, a renowned Victorian Era polar explorer, from
the prestigious Herodotus Foundation. John Sinclair, chairman of the
Herodotus foundation, takes a break from his excavations at Ephesus, Turkey,
to make the award, and when the two meet at the gala ward—well, let’s just
say there is magic in the air.
But there is also danger in the air, for Cordelia has
also been informed that her only living relative (who refused to have
anything to do with her after she was orphaned at the age of twelve) has
died, leaving the entire Stapleton estate to her—an estate that includes
properties in England and land in far north Norway, which had been mined by
her great-great grandfather’s coal mining company. But to verify the
legitimacy of this latter bequest, she must produce the deed to the
Norwegian land—a deed which has been missing for most of the 20th
Century. A long-forgotten journal penned by Elliott Stapleton has been
discovered in the archives of the Oceanographic Institute and is presented
to Cordelia by John Sinclair; perhaps it holds a key to the location of the
missing deed. It soon becomes apparent, however, that sinister forces are
at work, trying desperately to discover the location of the deed before
Cordelia is able to establish her rights. Cordelia’s life is in constant
danger almost from the moment she sets foot in Monaco, and the dashing John
Sinclair provides protection for the endangered damsel.
As the plot unfolds it is apparent that the Russian
mafia is relentlessly seeking the missing deed, but so is the Norwegian
government and a clandestine arm of the United States security apparatus.
And the reader is constantly reminded that Cordelia has only known her
benefactor John Sinclair for a very brief period of time and the threats to
her very life commenced only after she had been drawn to him. Toss into
this mix two British virologists who attempt to recover human tissue from
the bodies of miners buried at the site of Stapleton coal mine who were
victims of the 1919 “Spanish” flu pandemic, a doomsday Global Seed Vault
also located on the Norwegian land included in the missing deed and a group
of crazed Christian fundamentalists who wish to destroy it, and you have the
ingredients for a wonderfully rollicking adventure.
I have reviewed any number of novels lately that relate
tales of high adventure and treasure hunting in one form or another, but
this is the first told by a woman author and I found it a refreshing change
of pace from the male take on this genre. There is a greater focus on the
romantic aspects of the story—and quite often these depictions are rather
sweet and almost old fashioned. The pace seems less hectic than is often
the case in adventure novels and there’s a greater emphasis on descriptions
of place and location. Most male-oriented adventures rely heavily on
graphically violent, blood-splattered action scenes to carry the
plotline—Ms. Pilgrim, to her credit, fell into this trap on only two
occasions, and frankly, they weren’t all that necessary to the storyline.
There were a few scenes that were somewhat puzzling in
that her protagonists—for the most part level-headed and rational
creatures—would occasionally behave in uncharacteristic ways. Cordelia
would forsake her mature ways and suddenly behave like a petulant adolescent
or Sinclair would, after repeatedly noting the need for Cordelia to be under
constant surveillance because of the dangers that she was facing, would
almost absent-mindedly lose track of her!
Nonetheless, this is a satisfying first novel and a
welcome addition to a genre that is too often relegated to male writers and
male readers. Two trowels for Kitty Pilgrim’s The Explorer’s Code.
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