Deep Six was published by Simon & Schuster in 1984. The President and Vice President of the United States disappear simultaneously — the President from his yacht on the Potomac River, the Vice President from Air Force Two. With the line of succession thrown into chaos and the Speaker of the House assuming emergency powers, Pitt stumbles onto the conspiracy through a separate investigation: a nerve agent dumped in the ocean is contaminating the food chain, and the trail leads to Min Koryo Bougainville, a Korean shipping tycoon who has been financing a scheme to destabilize the American government.
The mind-control element — the President and Vice President have been drugged with a compound that makes them suggestible and amnesiac — reflects the era’s anxiety about Soviet and Asian influence operations. Cussler treats the political thriller material with the same action-adventure pacing he brings to his maritime plots: the investigation moves from the ocean floor to Washington corridors to a final confrontation aboard Bougainville’s flagship.
Deep Six was the novel that moved Cussler from adventure writer to consistent bestseller, and its success confirmed that the Pitt formula could accommodate political thrillers as easily as treasure hunts.
Collecting Deep Six
First edition (Simon & Schuster, New York, 1984): Cloth binding, dust jacket.
Market values:
- First edition, fine/fine: $30–$80
- Very good/very good: $10–$30
- Signed: $50–$150