Riptide by Ekstrand

Dylan Ekstrand
Mrs. Smith
Riptide, Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child,
published by grand central publishing

The story starts off with a interesting prologue describing a pirate by the name of Edward Ockham who hid his treasure on Raggad Island. The curiosity of a lost fisherman stranded on the island who found where the treasure seemed to be hidden turned into a quest of many to find the treasure that is booby trapped beneath the island. The first attempt to reveal the treasure was in 1790. So many lives have perished and people have lost fortunes trying to discover the treasure. The main character is Malin Hatch who currently is a medical researcher for a hospital in Cambridge Massachusetts. When he was a younger child his father owned the island, and one day his curiosity got the best of him. He took his brother to the island where his brother was buried alive. As in his adult life he is the owner of the island and is constantly bombarded with people asking his permission to dig on the island, and every answer of his is no. Until one day he is approached by a man he says he has the blue prints to who designed the chamber the treasured was buried in, and that he also knows who the person was that created it. Reluctant at first Malin decides to grant permission to the man. But will the curse that is said to be surrounded by the treasure destroy yet another man's life? Will the treasure ever be found? The author's style is very easy to follow. He uses just enough imagery to let the reader get a full understanding of what is occurring, but doesn't over do it. This makes the book very easy to read as well as very suspenseful making the reader want to read more and more. Once I picked up the book I found it very hard to put it down. The setting is really important in that it makes the story majestic since it is on the coast of Massachusetts which has so much history. I would hands down recommend this book to anyone as it is a great read.