Bill is 14, and he’s desperately embarassed by (ahem) personal relationships, but he’ll have to get over it if I’m pregnant again.
He would like something that sticks to the plot! Can you remember the starting point of the series? Don’t panic if you can’t - we can figure it out from the library catalog.
Cussler has two “series” going. The ones with Dirk Pitt are mostly Spy vs. Spy with some really innovative equipment.
The other bunch of books has a number of characters, and in all of them, at some point, the good guys get rescued by Clive Cussler himself, so they can go on to finish whatever mission they’re on.
I don’t think “personal” relationships are quite the thing in these books. At least, I viewed them as probably less harmful than what we encounter on a daily basis.
(And I was going to ask about that pregnancy-thing...)
There are lots and lots of them. I think I've read them all over the years, but I can't remember the order. As I recall, the sex is offstage. You know they Did It, but there's no "throbbing" or "heaving" body parts. Dirk drives classic cars, which Cussler collects IRL.
The books are widely available at Goodwill and other thrift stores. They stand alone more than the Harry Potters do, but not as much as, say, the Hardy Boys.
I like them enough that I regretted sending mine off to Goodwill to make space (what WAS I thinking?), and have been re-collecting them back as I find them.
The author's a pretty interesting guy - he uses the money from the Pitt books to finance undersea explorations. He's the one who found the Hunley, the Confederate submarine. The Sea Hunters tells the stories of some of the expeditions.