Cave Diver by Jake Avila

Today is my stop on the blog tour for action thriller Cave Diver by Jake Avila. Many thanks to Tracy Fenton at Compulsive Readers for the invitation and to the publishers for my review copy.

The Blurb

'Breathtakingly researched, brilliantly executed.' Wilbur Smith

A high-octane, fast-paced novel from a new voice in adventure writing and the winner of a Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize. For fans of Clive Cussler.

Acclaimed explorer Rob Nash has lost his way. Grieving the death of his wife, and blaming himself, he sees no reason to carry on. But when his 'Uncle' Frank Douglas offers him the chance to lead a cave diving expedition in the jungles of Papua, Nash can see some light at the end of the tunnel.

But the expedition might not be what it seems. With a decades old Japanese submarine buried deep in a cavern, and a team hell-bent on unleashing the treasures it hides, Nash finds himself on a ship heading for danger. With a lethal band of criminals on board, who will stop at nothing to get the gold, Nash is fighting for his life. Whilst battling his own demons, can he forgive himself for the wrongs of his past - and survive the perils of the deep?

Cave Diver was published by Zaffre on 5th August 2021.

My Review

Diver Rob Nash has lost interest in pretty much everything since the death of his wife, for which he blames himself. He's lost out on work, lost money and neglected the house and bills. But devastating news close to home finally starts to pull him out of his self despair & when old family friend Frank Douglas visits with details of a proposed job including a trip Nash has always wanted to make and very generous pay, Nash sets aside his suspicions, takes the job and heads off to Papua New Guinea for what he hopes will be the dive of his life. However, he soon begins to realise the documentary he's been hired to work on is not quite what it seems...

Avila writes Nash as a broken man, it comes off the page. We can see the defeat in his eyes, feel his emptiness, his loss. But at the same time I wanted to shake him, to wake him up, tell him life is worth living, lol. He is clearly a good man, though, and time and time again we see him do the right thing, stand up for his friends, fight for the crew. But he is not the only gutsy character we see in this book - 'Uncle' Frank and Mia also deserve a mention. The loyalties of the crew, drawn from the local population, are a little more ambitious as they have much to fear from the Suyanto family who have chartered the boat to make their documentary. And also Jaap Boerman - oh, I really didn't like him! But he's brilliantly written. 

I was fascinated by the Pidgin language used by the Papua New Guinea natives which makes up some of the dialogue in the book. I could mostly follow it, worked out the rest and felt it kept things interesting. I loved the scene setting - the rivers, the lush, exotic countryside, the scary wildlife, conditions on the boat. Much of the story is set on the boat or under water, making it feel very claustrophobic, adding to the tension, magnifying the feeling of dread. There is quite a lot of technical five stuff which Avila has clearly researched well but I must admit to skipping the occasional bit. 

The plot line is part mystery, part treasure hunt, part road movie (on a river, but you get my drift), part thriller. I loved the mix of nationalities that make up the cast and how they all related to each other. I loved that I got a glimpse of completely different cultures. 

Cave Diver is an atmospheric, claustrophobic thriller. It's about evil, greed, murder, despair, redemption, hope and love. It's action packed and, once it gets going, moves along at a cracking pace and has some great characters. It's the first action thriller I've read set in the murky world of rivers and lakes and I really enjoyed it. 


The Author

Jake Avila is a full-time writer with a BA in Writing and Information Technology. He has a background in freelance journalism writing on politics, culture, technology, and sport, and taught secondary English for ten years. In 2019, he won the Adventure Writer's Competition Clive Cussler Grandmaster Award for Cave Diver and then went on to win the Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize for the same book in 2020.