Four stars means a very good book with a few reservations in my rating system, and The Race earns its place there. The early aviation setting gives this fourth Isaac Bell adventure plenty of appeal. Flying across America in a machine that might struggle to get you safely across a field is an ambitious undertaking even before someone starts interfering with the aircraft.
Set in 1910, the story centres on a coast-to-coast air race organised by newspaper magnate Preston Whiteway. There's $50,000 on offer for the first aviator to complete the crossing in under fifty days. Whiteway is backing Josephine Frost, a talented pilot whose estranged husband has threatened to kill her. Isaac Bell and the Van Dorn Detective Agency are hired to keep her alive.
It's a wonderfully inconvenient assignment. The person Bell needs to protect is participating in a public competition that takes her across the country and regularly puts her beyond the reach of anyone standing on the ground. Her husband has money and criminal contacts along the route. Then sabotage enters the picture, and keeping an eye on the hangar is clearly going to be insufficient.
The aviation is the strongest part of the book for me. Cussler and Scott give the machinery enough attention for its limitations to matter. The aircraft need work, the people flying them need nerve, and the prospect of covering that distance feels considerable. A mechanical problem carries real consequences when you're already in the air. That makes the technical material useful to the suspense, and gives the race a sense of physical effort.
There's also something appealing about seeing an enormous technological change while it's still uncertain. We know what aviation will become. These competitors are working with what they have, taking risks and trying to make the next stage possible. The distance between those fragile machines and our casual expectations of air travel is rather sobering.
Bell suits this environment. He's practical, decisive and willing to acquire whatever skill the situation requires. His colleagues also have work to do, which helps give the protection effort some substance. Following a moving target across America requires coordination as well as courage.
His competence does occasionally ask a lot of the reader, though. Learning to fly comes remarkably easily, even allowing for his established abilities. I would have welcomed a little more difficulty there. The aircraft are dangerous enough that his rapid mastery slightly weakens the sense of risk the rest of the story works to establish.
Josephine gives the race a personal stake beyond the prize. She has an ambition of her own and the ability to pursue it, yet her safety and opportunities are entangled with men who have their own intentions. Whiteway’s sponsorship is complicated by his romantic interest. Her husband’s violence makes independence dangerous. Being celebrated as a female aviator doesn't automatically give her control over her circumstances.
I would have liked more room for her perspective. Bell carries much of the action, and the pace leaves limited space for the characters to become as fully developed as they might have been. Josephine’s position offers enough complexity to deserve that extra attention.
Harry Frost supplies a substantial threat through his resources and relentless pursuit. His connection to Bell’s earlier career adds a reason for the detective to feel personally invested. The villainy is broad, and readers who prefer ambiguity in their antagonists may find him exaggerated. Within this sort of adventure, he provides the pressure needed to keep the protection assignment difficult.
The Race maintains its energy well. The competition gives the story a route and a deadline, while the investigation adds uncertainty about whom to trust. I'd recommend it to readers who enjoy historical adventure, machinery and a capable detective with a demanding job to finish.
The flying stayed with me most. Those early aviators were willing to leave the ground with very little reassurance that their machines would bring them back safely. The book gives that courage enough practical detail to make it feel earned. Bell’s own achievements could have used a little more of the same resistance.
🔎 Read this if you enjoy historical adventure thrillers
📚 Daring air races and detective investigations
💭 Ambition, jealousy and deception
👥 Determined aviators and loyal partnerships
✈️ Early flying machines and dangerous competition
⚠️ Includes domestic abuse, threats and violence.
Book Details
The Race by Clive Cussler and Justin Scott
Paperback ISBN
978-0241950746 — Michael Joseph paperback edition published in Australia on 22 August 2012.
Hardcover ISBN
978-0399157813 — G. P. Putnam’s Sons US hardcover published on 6 September 2011.
eBook ISBN
978-0141965468 — Penguin eBooks edition published in Australia on 5 July 2012.
Audiobook ISBN
978-1405925389 — Penguin Audio unabridged digital audiobook published in Australia on 27 August 2015.
Genre
Historical Fiction; Adventure Fiction; Thriller; Mystery; Suspense.
Subgenre
Historical Adventure Thriller; Historical Detective Fiction; Aviation Fiction; American Historical Fiction; Action Thriller. These descriptive classifications reflect the novel’s setting and subject matter.
Tropes / Literary Threads
Cross-country air race; pioneering aviators; threatened female pilot; protective detective; violent husband; recurring adversary; aircraft sabotage; criminal networks; missing body; concealed identities; stolen inventions; wealthy newspaper sponsor; jealousy and ambition
Publisher
Michael Joseph / Penguin — Australian-listed paperback.
Series
Isaac Bell Adventures — Book 4. Follows The Spy and precedes The Thief. Co-written by Clive Cussler and Justin Scott.
Formats Available
Paperback; hardcover; eBook; unabridged digital audiobook.
Audiobook Narrator
Scott Brick.
Audiobook Length
10 hours and 57 minutes.
Original Release Date
6 September 2011 — US publication.
Australian Release Date
5 July 2012 — listed eBook edition.
Page Count
432 pages — paperback ISBN 978-0241950746.
Where to Buy The Race by Clive Cussler and Justin Scott
📚 Amazon
Affiliate Disclosure
As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. If you purchase through my Amazon affiliate links, I may receive a small commission at no additional cost to you. I also encourage supporting Australian booksellers such as QBD Books, independent booksellers, and self-published authors whenever possible.
Danielle Robinson is a literary critic and writer whose work explores literature through the
lens of atmosphere, memory, culture, and emotional experience.
Holding a double degree in philosophy and theology, she combines academic insight with a deeply refined aesthetic sensibility shaped by more than three decades working across the creative industries as an internationally published, multi-award-winning makeup artist, fashion stylist, and interior stager.
She reads widely and rigorously, reading and reviewing more than 200 books each year as both an ARC reader and commissioned critic. Through Silk & Sentences, Danielle approaches literature as something immersive and lived with — not simply stories to consume, but works that shape the way we think, feel, and move through the world.
She writes from her semi-rural Queensland home, where she lives with Alex, her husband of 33 years, their dogs Oscar and Paige, and an ever-growing library of books.
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