A mysterious shipwreck. A ruthless treasure hunter. A race against time.
Cayman Islands divemaster AJ Bailey is searching for a long forgotten WWII U-boat at the bottom of the Caribbean Sea. Armed with nothing more than an adventurous spirit and her late grandfather’s tale, she’s determined to find the submarine and the secret it protects.
When a wealthy treasure hunter shows up with a ruthless … hunter shows up with a ruthless crew, AJ becomes entangled in a frantic duel to find the precious piece of history. Diving into the path of merciless killers at treacherous depths, she must fight to keep her grandfather’s dream – and herself – alive.
Weaving between 1945 and current time, Twelve Mile Bank blends an intriguing historical tale with thrilling modern suspense in book one of the AJ Bailey Adventure series.
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This is the first I have read by Nicolas Harvey. I am so impressed; I love the thrilling adventure of diving for sunken treasure. Mr. Harvey is a very good writer, with a great imagination, and I look forward to reading the rest of his books!!
Twelve Mile Bank – a review by Rosemary Kenny
AJ Bailey is a divemaster with her own charter business, Mermaid Divers, in the Grand Cayman islands.
When her dive-ship’s captain, Thomas, seeks her help in cleaning up his late Uncle Henry’s fishing boat, what does AJ find hidden on board?
What does her mentor ‘Uncle’ Reg tell her about his charter-boat hire?
Reg soon regrets taking on this deep-sea exploration job, especially when it seems they may target him, for AJ’s knowledge of the scuttled WWII U-Boat’s whereabouts. He’s worried that the unscrupulous Renfro and his men, will stop at nothing, to recover something hidden within it.
How does Mac try to charm AJ into giving him info,
and when does she realise what he’s really like?
An epic, minutely detailed novel, that fills in the actual WWII history of the time, the start of AJ’s interest in finding/preserving wrecks and the minutiae of diving regulations, limitations etc, which may or may not enhance your reading experience, of Nicholas Harvey’s Twelve Mile Bank. The novel has a slow build throughout, with an ‘HEA’ of sorts, which you might also enjoy.
Why not try this intriguing tale of relic-hunting, diving and complex relationships, (which reminded me of the Jacqueline Bissett/Nick Nolte film, The Deep, to be honest), for yourself?
It makes a good start to the series, as a standalone, or to whet your appetite for Book 2!
I read Twelve Mile Bank first. I was hooked. I have now read the next five and plan to read all of the rest in the series. The characters have a quality of realism, by which I mean that the good people are not perfect and the bad people are not a personification of evil, although dastardly enough. The setting is amazing and the author brings it to life in three dimensions. I do not scuba dive but feel that I can understand a lot about the experience. This authenticity allows the characters to come alive in a context. This book, the beginning of a series, has action, great characters, a realistic plot and situations, and is set in a realistic, almost idealistic location. A J Bailey is not wealthy or glib. She is, instead, interesting. I grew, reading this first book to care what happened to A J and the cast. Spoiler alert: The next five books, which I have read, are equally excellent.
One thing an action-adventure thriller novel must have is a climactic action-packed sequence… and this one has a DOOZY! Great read. Marvelous historical details… clear the author did his research.
A Wonderful Weaving of Historical Events With Present Day Greed
I truly enjoyed 😀 Twelve Mile Bank (book#1 in the AJ Bailey series by Nicholas Harvey) an adventure novel based in the Caribbean waters surrounding the Grand Cayman island. This book kept my interest. I nearly read it in one setting, pushing ahead to see what would happen with AJ/FMC, a Cayman island dive operator, as she inadvertently puts herself in the path of merciless killers.
AJ Bailey and Reg Moore/MMC, her mentor and friend, have been splitting their time between taking tourists diving and searching for a lost WWII U-boat AJ believes may have sunk years ago a fair distance off the coast. AJ and Reg haven’t felt rushed in their search until a ruthless salvage diver arrives with a wealthy backer, a crew, and a boat full of deep diving gear, radar & sonar scanning equipment – everything necessary to strip a wreck quickly. Suddenly, it’s become a race against time, and in this race the losers may die.
The author effectively weaves historical events with present day ramifications flawlessly into the telling of the story. I do recommend Twelve Mile Bank to readers looking for an exciting, page-turning novel; for those who enjoy action-adventure novels; historical wartime fiction; and for those who scuba dive or who enjoy reading adventures and mysteries about scuba diving. Clive Cussler fans (which I am) will undoubtedly enjoy Twelve Mile Bank. It was a pleasure to read about diving and have it so accurately portrayed. Twelve Mile Bank was a very enjoyable read!
Reader Cautions – This is a “nearly” Clean novel.
Profanity – less than 10 times.
Sex – brief mention of past relationships (off-scene) and current possibilities (less than a PG-13 movie, IMO). Twelve Mile Bank is an adventure mystery. The emphasis is on the action and the solving of the mystery.
Violence – not graphic; past murders mentioned briefly, main characters attacked by antagonists. WWII war crimes discussed briefly. IMO, Twelve Mike Bank is appropriate for all readers 16 and older unless they would be offended by the aforementioned.