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Night-Sea Trilogy #1
Златният дявол
Потънало съкровище и страховита битка очакват всеки, който издържа на много текила!
Оживяла местна легенда мами към несметни богатства!
След колежа Джак Дюран и двамата му приятели Рок и Дъф решават да попътуват, за да се насладят за последно на свободата, преди да влязат в “реалния свят”. Но, когато Дан, блудният брат на Джак, изчезва в Мексико, те се насочват към Пуерто Валарта, решени да го намерят.
Следвайки тъмните сделки на Дан, скоро се присъединяват към харизматичен ексцентрик - собственик на яхта с неясно минало - и се влюбват безнадеждно в двете му загадъчни придружителки. Докато плават покрай покрития с джунгли мексикански бряг, разбират, че Дан е търсел корабокруширал през 19. век кораб, за който се твърди, че е пълен със злато. Когато най-накрая откриват потопения съд в залива на забравено от света рибарско градче, те слизат в зловещите тъмни води при съкровището.
Но гмуркачите започват да изчезват един по един.
Задъхан приключенски трилър, напомнящ за “Дълбините” и “Плажът”, “Златният дявол” е наелектризиращ разказ за потънал кораб, мрачни страсти и страшните обитатели на дълбините.
Оживяла местна легенда мами към несметни богатства!
След колежа Джак Дюран и двамата му приятели Рок и Дъф решават да попътуват, за да се насладят за последно на свободата, преди да влязат в “реалния свят”. Но, когато Дан, блудният брат на Джак, изчезва в Мексико, те се насочват към Пуерто Валарта, решени да го намерят.
Следвайки тъмните сделки на Дан, скоро се присъединяват към харизматичен ексцентрик - собственик на яхта с неясно минало - и се влюбват безнадеждно в двете му загадъчни придружителки. Докато плават покрай покрития с джунгли мексикански бряг, разбират, че Дан е търсел корабокруширал през 19. век кораб, за който се твърди, че е пълен със злато. Когато най-накрая откриват потопения съд в залива на забравено от света рибарско градче, те слизат в зловещите тъмни води при съкровището.
Но гмуркачите започват да изчезват един по един.
Задъхан приключенски трилър, напомнящ за “Дълбините” и “Плажът”, “Златният дявол” е наелектризиращ разказ за потънал кораб, мрачни страсти и страшните обитатели на дълбините.
400 pages, Paperback
First published June 27, 2006
9 people are currently reading
91 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
December 9, 2015
I am obsessed with cryptozoology. However, other than Peter Benchley and Michael Crichton, I had been fighting against the idea of tech-thriller adventures being a genre I could ever get swept up in, even those featuring cryptids or prehistoric creatures.
Tech-thriller adventures seemed to be like 70's rock to me: a little too dad-friendly and maybe not surprising enough for my tastes, added to the fact that I prefer period-piece settings and pulp-style oldschool adventures over modern books you can find at your local super market.
I started getting a hunger for Jaws and Jurassic Park-type adventures and realized I needed to be more open-minded and damn! this was a popular genre, and I've always believed that even in the most common, every day, popular crap that is constantly being forced in our face, nothing is that popular unless it was done right by somebody. At least once! and probably more times than that. I feel that way about jazz, country and cRAP music too, thinking "There's just gotta be some gems in this shi† somewhere, right!?" And there always is. So there I was catching myself researching like crazy to find all the cryptid-related modern tech-thriller adventures out there in hopes I'd find a few I'd want to read. A bunch of them just weren't for me. Creatures that were either too 'unheard of' or writers trying to be too original and I was mostly like, "whatever!" about quite a few of them. Many of the characters advertised too many macho man qualities for my tastes and imo, they had better have some redeeming qualities to balance all that out for me to like them.
I took a rain check on Clive Cussler, Michael Crichton, and a few other biggies in the field to focus on up & comer's, writers of hidden gems, and authors being lauded by other more popular authors than themselves. Of the masses, I stumbled upon some semi-popular and mostly unknown dudes out there. And btw, they're always DUDES, another reason I might've steered clear of tech-thriller adventures in the past. Fortunately, I found a few treasures along the way.
Dark Gold is one of those.
Jack Duran's older brother Dan hasn't contacted his mother for months, or anyone else as far as they know. From the last letters received, Jack determines his brother, a former anthropology student, went treasure and glory-hunting in Puerta Vallarta, Mexico. Jack sets out to find them. Tagging along with him are his college buddy friends, Duff and Rock - a real couple of maroon's that rank right up there with the best (worst?) of 'em. When they finally reach their destination, they find that Dan has left a shady trail that puts them all at risk. Stripped of hope, they feel their luck turn for the better when they meet up with a Bahamian yachtsmen and two gorgeous girls in some itsy bitsy teeny weenie's. Agreeing to work together to find what happened to Dan, they soon come across what they can only assume is his last location. A shipwreck below the sea. Luckily(?), they're all capable divers and soon find, not only a shipwreck but, sunken treasure as well. But that's not all. Something real lurks below the ocean surface that could be one and the same with a foreboding local legend: el Diablo Blanco . Will they find Dan? Will they get the treasure? Will they unravel the mystery of the sea creature?
Filtering out the bad from the good, I was able to narrow down the best of the tech-thiller adventure lot, and thus I had pretty high hopes this book would be a good one. I never thought for a moment, however, that it would turn out to be one of my favorite books.
It has tons of action, a very intriguing group of characters, namely the main protagonist, Jack Duran. BTW, in books like these, they ALL have Clive Cussler name tags like Jack Duran, Dirk Pitt, Alex Hunter, Robert Langdon, Stone Barrington, whatever. Fact is I really liked the guy. He's the kind of guy you'd think if you met him at a party you might not like him because he was just a little too tan and had just a little too white of teeth and not enough physical faults or mental ticks to consider him a true broski. But he's one cool dude. He does a few things you want to strangle him for because he's not perfect, but that in turn allows for a more likeable guy overall. One of his friends is a doofus and the other is The Rock, only not black & tan or whatever The Rock is.
It's not quite the cryptid adventure I thought it would be and why it's labeled as a tech-thriller, I dunno'. It's not that 'techy'. It's more of an adventure, and the cryptid part is more of a mystery but, luckily, that doesn't make it any less enjoyable. In fact, it gives a sort of power to the myth that swims just below the surface of the book and to the creature in the sea, by not over-exposing it like the Syfy channel would if it were one of their movies.
The story is very well written and one of the more perfectly plotted books I've read. There's treasure, beautiful women, scary foreigners, a bit of voodoo that almost had me coughin' out "Dagon!" for a minute but no, it goes somewhere else so no worries there for those who want assurance this is a cryptozoology / tech-thriller and not some supernatural mumbo jumbo. There is a sense of mysticism but let the book decide the level of that for you.
You might find it interesting to note that I believe author David Angsten must have read The Black Pearl book as a kid, drawing inspiration from it for Dark Gold.
I could not put Dark Gold down for the life of me. I read for like 20 hrs in a row at one time - which many of you would've probably finished the book by then.
David Angsten is a writer to put on your list.
*If you are a book connoiseur like me, track down the darkish blue cover with the shiny iridescent blue embossed lettering. It's striking, stands out more, and it's always good to support the better product.
Highly recommended!!!!!
January 28, 2010
Entertaining. A fun sort of summer book, that had less to do with the ocean and the giant, man-eating, albino manta ray than I had hoped. It was mostly about gold - an African-slave-ship-gold-rush-sort of treasure hunt. The most shocking part of it was the rather graphic sex scene that was so obviously written by a man. It was, I suppose, rather enlightening and laughably male... Still, overall, the book held a touch of the ridiculous, but remained rather engrossing. I suppose I would keep an eye out for the sequel... But I am not dying to read it.
August 19, 2012
A quite unusaul combo of thriller, family drama and mystery- really well done.
October 9, 2019
Good. There's some scary moments, treasure hunting ( what is manta ray is?) And you investigate either brother is alive or dead.
Personally I would leave the gold under the oceans. I know there's a lot of treasures under the oceans. It's not worth my life.
Personally I would leave the gold under the oceans. I know there's a lot of treasures under the oceans. It's not worth my life.
June 13, 2009
I really enjoyed this novel. The main characters were well developed and relatable, not some super hero type who can see through walls and snap the neck of five strong men at a time. That was really a plus for this reader.
I never skimmed pages! That's big for me lately. The writing kept me reading, and I enjoyed soaking up each page and seeing how the protagonist got in deeper and deeper. There was just enough atmosphere to let me visualize, but not enough to bog me down. The situation near the end gets a little far-fetched if you aren't willing to suspend disbelief for the sake of a good read. Fortunately, I'm eager to jump right in and do that, so I found DARK GOLD to be well worth the dive.
I never skimmed pages! That's big for me lately. The writing kept me reading, and I enjoyed soaking up each page and seeing how the protagonist got in deeper and deeper. There was just enough atmosphere to let me visualize, but not enough to bog me down. The situation near the end gets a little far-fetched if you aren't willing to suspend disbelief for the sake of a good read. Fortunately, I'm eager to jump right in and do that, so I found DARK GOLD to be well worth the dive.
Currently reading
May 29, 2009So far it appears to be well written. If you like diving and traveling it is good w/ some accurate references on both. Well balanced w/ suspense and romance. Getting to the crescendo part now...will post more
August 27, 2007
Trashy adventure/monster story, but it was fun to read at the beach.
October 15, 2012
Makes you want to find a beach, kick back... and enjoy the ride! Deliciously chilling.
September 27, 2017
Dark Gold is a timeless, multi-layered thriller that transcends the genre, a novel that’s as relevant today as it was when it was published in 2006 because it focuses on themes that we can all relate to: friendship, family, betrayal, and greed. Told in first person by Jack Duran, a somewhat directionless, untried young man who’s just graduated college, it describes his quest to find his missing brother Dan, and the terrible things Jack uncovers along the way.
It’s very much a hero’s journey that takes the reader to Mexico and beyond, filled with cocaine pinatas, bizarre rituals, shocking violence, sunken treasure, and El Diablo Blanco, a creature as disturbing as anything you would see outside the mind of H.P. Lovecraft. From the details of drug culture and deep-sea diving to characters that don’t just leap off the page, but get into your face and demand you never forget them, Dark Gold is the fastest-reading novel for its length I’ve ever encountered.
Danger, sex, untold riches, and horrific cults: what’s not to like? Escapism doesn’t get much better than Dark Gold.
It’s very much a hero’s journey that takes the reader to Mexico and beyond, filled with cocaine pinatas, bizarre rituals, shocking violence, sunken treasure, and El Diablo Blanco, a creature as disturbing as anything you would see outside the mind of H.P. Lovecraft. From the details of drug culture and deep-sea diving to characters that don’t just leap off the page, but get into your face and demand you never forget them, Dark Gold is the fastest-reading novel for its length I’ve ever encountered.
Danger, sex, untold riches, and horrific cults: what’s not to like? Escapism doesn’t get much better than Dark Gold.
March 21, 2025
There was a lot to like and a lot that I didn’t really like here. The story itself is a fascinating one. Treasure hunting with a mystical sea monster is right up my alley and when the story was zeroed in on those aspects, it was cooking with gas. Unfortunately, the author is insanely horny so there is a LOT about nipples and erections and legs here, like entirely too much for the subject matter. It’s also pretty redundant, dive, come up and fight, dive again, almost die, come up for a respite, dive again. If they would have simplified things, focused more on the insanely cool albino manta and the gold, and turned down the hornless levels by about 50%, this could have been excellent. It just ended up being okay for me, would recommend if you don’t mind the things mentioned above.
August 1, 2017
Fast paced!
December 20, 2012
Jack Duran and his two best friends, Rock and Duff, have been painting houses and saving money, and now they’re ready to take a trip around the world. Their first stop is Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, the last known location of Jack’s wild older brother Dan. Jack’s mother has been frantic with worry since she hasn’t heard from her eldest son in months, so the three young men spend several weeks scouring Puerto Vallarta for any sign of Dan with no success. When Jack finally finds a scrap of information, it comes with a warning in the form of “Yanqui go home,” carved into his back with a knife. Naturally, instead of heeding the warning, Jack, Rock, and Duff attempt to hire a boat to Punta Perdida, where Jack now believes Dan to be. But no one will take them, calling it a bad place. The guys befriend another trio on a yacht, however. Portly Jamaican Hector Bellocheque is on vacation sailing with two lovely young women, Eva and Candy, and the group is soon on their way to the strange village. Bellocheque intrigues the young men with a tale of lost gold on the sea bottom near Punta Perdida, and when a maimed priest in the village gives Jack his missing brother’s knapsack and hurries him away, they know that Dan is dead.
One of the items in Dan’s knapsack is a notebook filled with his stoned ramblings, diagrams, and a diary of sorts that gives directions to a wreck called the Argonaut lying on the bottom near the village. The group decides to go looking for it, and with the notebook’s directions, it is not long before the Argonaut is found. Shortly thereafter, Hector and Candy return from the dive with more gold coins like the one Hector had shown them earlier. Jack and Duff dive next, and Jack discovers five chests full of gold bars. Duff heads back to the surface ahead of Jack, and Jack then sees something so frighteningly huge, he passes out and has to be rescued by the others. They inform him Duff never made it back to the boat.
After Jack witnesses a strange, dark ritual too bizarre to seem real in Punta Perdida, Bellocheque tells them the legend behind the Argonaut and of the giant manta ray that guards the gold, which ties into the antisocial behavior of the villagers. The stakes are high, but the payoff will be great if they can abscond with the Argonaut’s gold. There are other dangers, as well as the huge manta, and Jack discovers the seductive lure of gold and the immense risks and depraved depths it will take people to, as well as the high price to pay for its wealth.
Though it starred one heck of a scary monster and had its share of action, this was far more than a mere monster book. Angsten has a wry and entertaining way of turning a phrase, and Jack Duran experiences more than greed, lust, and fear while he finds his soul turned inside out by Punta Perdida, the Argonaut, and the legendary Diablo Blanco, the immense manta ray. Though some aspects of the story unfolded as predicted, there were enough unexpected twists to keep me guessing. David Angsten has a new fan.
One of the items in Dan’s knapsack is a notebook filled with his stoned ramblings, diagrams, and a diary of sorts that gives directions to a wreck called the Argonaut lying on the bottom near the village. The group decides to go looking for it, and with the notebook’s directions, it is not long before the Argonaut is found. Shortly thereafter, Hector and Candy return from the dive with more gold coins like the one Hector had shown them earlier. Jack and Duff dive next, and Jack discovers five chests full of gold bars. Duff heads back to the surface ahead of Jack, and Jack then sees something so frighteningly huge, he passes out and has to be rescued by the others. They inform him Duff never made it back to the boat.
After Jack witnesses a strange, dark ritual too bizarre to seem real in Punta Perdida, Bellocheque tells them the legend behind the Argonaut and of the giant manta ray that guards the gold, which ties into the antisocial behavior of the villagers. The stakes are high, but the payoff will be great if they can abscond with the Argonaut’s gold. There are other dangers, as well as the huge manta, and Jack discovers the seductive lure of gold and the immense risks and depraved depths it will take people to, as well as the high price to pay for its wealth.
Though it starred one heck of a scary monster and had its share of action, this was far more than a mere monster book. Angsten has a wry and entertaining way of turning a phrase, and Jack Duran experiences more than greed, lust, and fear while he finds his soul turned inside out by Punta Perdida, the Argonaut, and the legendary Diablo Blanco, the immense manta ray. Though some aspects of the story unfolded as predicted, there were enough unexpected twists to keep me guessing. David Angsten has a new fan.
July 6, 2016
Dark Gold is an enjoyable adventure/suspense novel that makes for an easy read. It starts out with the narrator, Jack, and his two best friends setting out on a post-college, around the world trip. They begin their journey in Mexico hoping to find Jack's older brother who may be missing somewhere near Puerta Vallarta. Add to the buddy trip slash missing person search, some beautiful women, a mysterious rich yachtsman, a sunken treasure, some scary drug dealing bikers, a town of equally scary natives and a giant sea monster and you've got a very action packed story! I was worried that there were too many elements to the plot, but the author manages to tie them all together without leaving any major loose ends that I noticed. The pacing is very fast and gives just enough background on the main characters to flesh them out without slowing down the action. There are some very improbable coincidences along the way that required more than the normal suspension of disbelief, but the book was entertaining enough overall that I was able to let them slide. It helped that the first person narrative and the "author's" note in the beginning put me in the mindset of listening to an exaggeration prone buddy tell a story after a few drinks. This was the first book I've read by David Angsten and I will definitely pick up one of his others if I came across it.
December 30, 2008
I read very few 'thriller/suspense' type books. I picked this one up because of its Central America and ocean themes - both topics I enjoy. Overall, I enjoyed this book... In particular, the earlier parts revolving around the three life-long buddies who, bored and itching with wanderlust, head off in search of the main character's missing brother. That leads them to Mexico and various encounters with the locals and local culture, including a strange, voodoo-like religion. I think Angsten did a good job building up the tension at various parts in the book that keep me engaged. In many ways, it felt like thriller screenplay. On the downside, I felt the ending was a bit 'tired' with some predictable plot lines and ending points. After being pulled and tugged by the author throughout the book, I expected one more intriguing twist at the end that never materialized. I'm still debating whether to pick up his new book "Night of the Furies" so that tells you I'm not 100% sold on "Dark Gold"...
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 31, 2008
This novel started off really well. The trio of guys searching for the missing brother in Acapulco, and Puerto Vallarta was very good. I've visited Mexico a few times and the author caught the vibe of what its like to walke the streets there. Where the book really went south for me was when they finally started diving for the gold. There were just way too many unlikely plot devices, and the ending ugh. The missing brother appearing in the nick of time. It would have been better if the book had ended with Eva and Jack ending up with all the money and then trying to figure out how they were going to smuggle 12 million dollars in gold back into the USA, or anything besides the way the book ended. I guess the fact that I finished it tells me that it was good enough to keep me interested most of the time, but that is hardly a recommendation...
September 22, 2016
This one really had its moments. Fun adventure story about an ill-considered trip south of the border to find a missing man, conducted not by professional investigators but a bunch of drunken college students. This turns into the vacation from hell, and there's even a monstrous cartilaginous fish in the middle of the story. If it were up to me there would be more giant fish and less vacation from hell, but maybe that's just me.
April 18, 2012
A few scenes really grabbed me, it was enough to bump it up from 1 to 2 stars.
August 30, 2012
A treasure hunt mystery that involves a large stingray.
December 8, 2017
"When the world offers itself to you, when it opens like a woman's legs and begs for you to enter, there's no holding back, no stopping, no chain on the madman living inside you. . ."
This one was recommended by author +David Dubrow. What I love about Mr. Dubrow is that when he reviews a book (or movie) he does not shy away from being completely honest. If something is not worth your time, he will let you know, and if he deems something worthwhile, then you are guaranteed a treat! Such is the case with this book - an excellent read, one you want to take your time with, absorbing each and every word (hence the above quote).
Thank you, Mr. Dubrow, for another great recommendation!
This one was recommended by author +David Dubrow. What I love about Mr. Dubrow is that when he reviews a book (or movie) he does not shy away from being completely honest. If something is not worth your time, he will let you know, and if he deems something worthwhile, then you are guaranteed a treat! Such is the case with this book - an excellent read, one you want to take your time with, absorbing each and every word (hence the above quote).
Thank you, Mr. Dubrow, for another great recommendation!
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews