Dirk Pitt Books in Order: How to read Clive Cussler’s Series?

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Dirk Pitt is a fictional character created by famous best-seller author Clive Cussler. With his sidekick Al Giordino, Pitt is a renowned adventurer.

Son of a Senator, a military man, and an accomplished pilot who loves to drink blue agave Tequila, Dirk Pitt is working for the National Underwater and Marine Agency (NUMA), an oceanographic research organization headed by Admiral James Sandecker until Dirk took his place.

Pitt is traveling around the world to help where he can to save sea life and human lives. He made numerous shipwreck discoveries but also stopped criminals determined to create global catastrophes in their attempts to realize their world domination ambitions.

How to read the Dirk Pitt Books in Order?

The books of the Dirk Pitt series can be read as stand-alone, even if the characters’ lives can evolve from one novel to the other. This is a guide to Dirk Pitt novels in chronological order

  1. Pacific Vortex!Released at a later date, but this is the first book that was written. Dirk Pitt is put to the ultimate test as he plunges into the perilous waters of the Pacific Vortex – a fog-shrouded area where dozens of ships have vanished without a trace. The latest victim is the awesome supersub Starbuck, bearing America’s deep-diving nuclear arsenal.
  2. The Mediterranean Caper – On a quiet Greek island, a U.S. air force base has come under attack – by a World War I fighter plane … a famous yellow Albatros supposedly lost at sea in 1918. Now it is up to Dirk Pitt and the rest of the NUMA team to root out the elusive truth behind the incident – and find out how it’s connected to mysterious acts of sabotage against a scientific expedition, an international smuggling ring, and a dark-haired beauty with some dangerous secrets.
  3. Iceberg – A routine survey mission over the North Atlantic exposes a missing luxury yacht frozen inside a million-ton mass of ice. The ship had vanished en route to a secret White House rendezvous, making it the responsibility of the NUMA to find out what happened.
  1. Raise the Titanic! – The President’s secret task force has developed an unprecedented defensive weapon that relies on an extremely rare radioactive element – and Dirk Pitt has followed a twisted trail to a secret cache of the substance. Pitt begins his most thrilling mission – to raise from its watery grave the shipwreck of the century…
  2. Vixen 03 – In 1954, the plane Vixen 03 is down. The plane, bound for the Pacific carrying thirty-six Doomsday Bombs, vanishes. In 1988, Dirk Pitt discovers the wreckage of Vixen 03. But two deadly canisters are missing.
  3. Night Probe! – In the midst of an international crisis, Heidi Milligan, an American naval commander, accidentally discovers an obscure reference to the long-buried North American Treaty, a precedent-shattering secret pact between the United States and Great Britain. The only two copies plummeted into the watery depths of the Atlantic long ago. The original document must be found.
  1. Deep Six – A deadly tide of poison flows into ocean waters. A ghost ship drifts across the empty northern Pacific. A luxury Soviet liner blazes into a funeral pyre. The Presidential yacht cruises the Potomac night – and the President disappears without a trace. Dirk Pitt takes on a sinister Asian shipping empire in an intercontinental duel of nerves.
  2. Cyclops – A wealthy American financier disappears on a treasure hunt in an antique blimp. From Cuban waters, the blimp drifts toward Florida with a crew of dead men – Soviet cosmonauts. Dirk Pitt discovers a shocking scheme: a covert group of US industrialists has put a colony on the moon, a secret base they will defend at any cost.
  3. Treasure – Dirk Pitt discovers the secret trail of the treasures of Alexandria – a trail that plunges him into a brutal conspiracy for total domination of the globe. Zealots threaten to unseat the governments of Egypt and Mexico, exposing America to invasion and economic collapse. Suddenly, from East to West, anarchists reach their deadly tentacles into the heart of the United States.
  1. Dragon – Japan, 1945: Two US bombers take off with atomic bombs. Only one gets through. The Pacific, 1993: A Japanese cargo ship bound for the United States is instantly, thunderously vaporized, taking with it a Norwegian vessel. From the ocean depths to the discovery of a cache of lost Nazi loot, Dirk Pitt is untangling a savage conspiracy and igniting a daring counterattack.
  2. Sahara – Egypt, 1996. Searching for a treasure on the Nile, Dirk Pitt thwarts the attempted assassination of a UN scientist who’s investigating a disease that is driving thousands of North Africans into madness, cannibalism, and death. The suspected cause of the raging epidemic is vast, unprecedented pollution that threatens to extinguish all life in the world’s seas.
  3. Inca Gold – Nearly five centuries ago a fleet of boats landed mysteriously on an island in an inland sea. There, an ancient Andean people hid a golden hoard greater than that of any pharaoh, then they and their treasure vanished into history. In 1998, in the Andes Mountains of Peru, Dirk Pitt dives into an ancient sacrificial pool, saving two American archaeologists from certain drowning. But his death-defying rescue is only the beginning.
  1. Shock Wave – Dirk Pitt is investigating the baffling deaths of thousands of Antarctic marine animals when he stumbles on something even more chilling. The passengers and crew of a cruise ship all died simultaneously and instantly, leaving stranded on a remote island whaling station a small party of tourists led by the beautiful Maeve Fletcher. And the carnage is just beginning…
  2. Flood Tide – When Dirk Pitt rescues an undercover agent in a daring underwater operation at Orion Lake, just north of Seattle, he confronts a sinister network run by Qin Shang, a ruthless smuggler who sells Chinese immigrants into slavery.
  3. Atlantis Found – A group of anthropologists uncovers strange inscriptions on the wall of a Colorado mine just as an explosion traps them deep within the earth. But their work won’t stay buried long. Dirk Pitt is on hand during the blast and quick to initiate a rescue operation.
  1. Valhalla Rising – In the middle of its maiden voyage, a luxury cruise ship using revolutionary new engines suddenly catches fire and sinks. Nearby NUMA special projects director Dirk Pitt notices smoke and races to the rescue. He’s too late to save the engineer but helps the man’s daughter, Kelly Egan. While Ms. Egan strives to uncover the hidden value in her father’s inventions, Pitt is hired by maritime insurers to investigate the wreckage.
  2. Trojan Odyssey – Fraternal twins, Summer Pitt and Dirk Pitt, Jr., are working to determine the origin of a strange brown tide infesting the ocean off the shore of Nicaragua when two startling things happen: Summer discovers an artifact, something strange and beautiful and ancient. And the worst storm in years boils up out of the sky, heading straight for them.
  3. Black Wind – In the waning days of World War II, the Japanese tried a last desperate measure, a revolutionary new strain of biological virus. But the subs never made it to the designated target. But that does not mean they were lost. Written with son Dirk Cussler.
  1. Treasure of Khan – When Dirk Pitt is nearly killed rescuing an oil survey team from a freak wave on Russia’s Lake Baikal, it appears a simple act of nature. But when the survey team is abducted and Pitt’s research vessel nearly sunk, it becomes clear this is no run of bad luck, but the influence of something, or someone, more sinister. Written with son Dirk Cussler.
  2. Arctic Drift – When an act of sabotage aims to slow down a technological breakthrough in American clean energy, it puts the United States on the brink of war with one of its closest allies. To prevent global catastrophe, Dirk Pitt and his children must piece together what little records remain of the initial experiment. Written with son Dirk Cussler.
  3. Crescent Dawn – In a.d. 327, a Roman galley with an extraordinary cargo barely escapes a pirate attack. In 1916, a British warship mysteriously explodes in the middle of the North Sea. In the present day, a cluster of important mosques in Turkey and Egypt are wracked by explosions. What ties them all together? NUMA director Dirk Pitt and his team are about to find out. Written with son Dirk Cussler.
  1. Poseidon’s Arrow – It is the greatest advance in American defense technology in decades - an attack submarine capable of incredible underwater speeds. There is only one problem: A key element of the prototype is missing - and the man who developed it is dead. It is up to NUMA director Dirk Pitt and his team to go on a desperate international chase to find the truth. Written with son Dirk Cussler.
  2. Havana Storm – While investigating an unexplained poisonous spill in the Caribbean Sea that may ultimately threaten the United States, Dirk Pitt unwittingly becomes involved in something even more dangerous – a post-Castro power struggle for the control of Cuba. Written with son Dirk Cussler.
  3. Odessa Sea – Dirk Pitt is on the Black Sea, helping to locate a lost Ottoman shipwreck, when he responds to an urgent Mayday–‘Under attack!’ - from a nearby freighter. But when he and his colleague Al Giordino arrive, there is nobody there. The more the two of them search for the secret of the death ship, the deeper they descend into an extraordinary series of discoveries. Written with son Dirk Cussler.
  1. Celtic Empire – During what was supposed to be a routine investigation in South America, NUMA Director Dirk Pitt finds himself embroiled in an international mystery, one that will lead him across the world and which will threaten everyone and everything he knows–most importantly, his own family. Written with son Dirk Cussler.
  2. The Devil’s Sea – Tibet, 1959: In the turmoil of the Communist takeover of the mountain kingdom, a Buddhist artifact of immense importance appears to have been lost to history. Until, 60 years later, clues to its survival emerge from the wreckage of a cargo plane discovered deep beneath the surface of the Philippine Sea… Dirk Pitt and his old friend Al Giordino already have their hands full dealing with the recovery of a top-secret hypersonic missile that went down in the Luzon Strait. Especially when it becomes clear that a rogue Chinese military team has its sights set on the same prize. And that, after making their own earth-shattering discovery about what lies below the waves, they’re prepared to go to any lengths to ensure that they possess it.
  3. The Corsican Shadow – France, May 1940. As the German army blitzes Europe and Parisians flee their city, the chief curator of the Musee de l’Armee is ordered to take a mysterious piece of cargo out of the country. But when he learns his intended ship has been sunk, the fate of his cargo must rest on a decrepit steamer, sailing out under German fire. . .Decades later, a diving expedition in the English Channel leads Director Dirk Pitt to a cache of uncut diamonds on a shipwreck. No sooner than they are discovered, the diamonds are stolen! Pitt and the NUMA agency now find they must face a murderous cabal with far more destructive plans than mere theft. Vital water treatment facilities around the globe are being targeted – placing the world’s population in grave peril.

Navigate The World of Clive Cussler

  1. The Dirk Pitt Series
  2. The NUMA Files
  3. The Oregon Files
  4. The Isaac Bell Adventures
  5. The Fargo Adventures
  6. All of Clive Cussler’s books

If our article about the Dirk Pitt Series in Order is useful to you, don’t forget to bookmark it to come back later to find out what’s the next book to read!

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5 Comments

  1. I just love all the Clive Cussler books. I have every one and every series and I read them over and over. Brilliant, keep them coming Clive.

  2. I have read all but the last couple
    I enjoy them and have read most of them 3 times
    They make cold nights warm as I enjoy reading late at night
    Thanks and keep them coming

  3. WHY isn’t there more releases in Swedish ?
    I have ca 30 books in swedish, but can’t find all that for instance can be found in finish or norwegian .

    So disappointing !!!!!

    /Rob

  4. Started with Tom Swift when I was a boy. Then the Hardy Boys. Eventually, all of this. Cannot have enough to keep me young and my mind alive!

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