The Race

It is 1910, and newspaper publisher Preston Whiteway has offered a fifty-thousand-dollar prize to the first aviator to cross America in under fifty days. When detective Isaac Bell is hired to protect Whiteway's sponsored competitor, a formidable female pilot named Josephine Frost, he discovers that the danger comes not from race rivals but from Josephine's brutally violent husband, a criminal kingpin with resources spread across the country. Cussler and Scott pack the novel with period aviation detail and the wide-open geography of early-twentieth-century America.

Scott Brick brings his characteristic authority to Isaac Bell, delivering the historical action sequences with the urgency they require while giving the quieter investigative scenes room to breathe. Brick's baritone and enunciation suit the era's formality, and his pacing ensures the novel's considerable runtime moves without feeling padded. Fans of historical adventure fiction will find the combination of real aviation history and taut plotting particularly satisfying in audio form.