History Literature / DirkPittAdventures

** In ''Cyclops'', Dirk Pitt is technically stated to have been born in 1951 (his given age was 38 in-universe 1989), yet Admiral Sandecker never ages, is always described as a man in the late middle age. In earlier books, the good ol' Admiral was described as born in 1918, which would make people wonder [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld if he is human at all]]. This year was retconned for good in ''Trojan Odyssey'', where his described age (61 in 2006) points to 1945 instead.

* WritersCannotDoMath: In the prologue, the narration claims the crew of the ''Madras'' to have been dead for 79 years. However, the prologue takes place in 1858, and the ''Madras'' was trapped in ice in 1797, which only amounts to 61 years.

* LoveTriangle: Pitt, Heidi Milligan, and Brian Shaw. [[spoiler: Pitt ends up pairing Heidi with Shaw when he engineers Shaw's release from custody at the end of the novel.

* AntiVillain: Brian Shaw is much more of a rival than a straight up villain - that role is mostly filled by Foss Gly.
* BigBad: Although Henri Villon is the leader of the Free Quebec Society, his [[TheDragon dragon]] Foss Gly is far more effective and intelligent. At the end [[spoiler:Gly kills Villon and briefly takes over his position.]] Of course, there's also Brian Shaw but he isn't exactly a villain.

* TheArk: The villains use custom built superships to survive the apocalypse they are causing to TakeOverTheWorld for their MasterRace. The ships are CrazyPrepared, including massive machinery, farm animals and seeds of all kinds, various cultural artifacts, ect.

* BigDamnHeroes: Used in the very beginning of books. It usually goes like this: The GirlOfTheNovel and her team has just landed in big trouble. They're in a life-or-death situation and no one can help them. Then Pitt and Giordino come along and save them, becoming wrapped up in their problem and kick-starting the plot.

* GirlOfTheNovel:

* HeroesWantRedHeads: Summer Moran and Loren Smith.

* OutOfCharacterAlert: Kirsti has spent most of her life in New Guinea, and Pitt describes a particular ethnic steak dish as something usually served wrapped in echidna seaweed. For those of us unfamiliar with the animal--and who haven't played ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'' recently--he waits until Kirsti leaves to explain to his friends that an echidna is a type of spiny anteater native to New Guinea. He just said he'd eat the equivalent of a "New York steak wrapped in porcupine quills".

* MultiEthnicName: [[spoiler:Carzo Butera, Rondheim's true name, is composed of two surnames of Spanish and Italian origin respectively.]]

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: It's claimed that UsefulNotes/SirFrancisDrake was in a huge numerical disadvantage when he fought the [[UsefulNotes/AngloSpanishWar15851604 Spanish Armada]]. This is often repeated in pop culture, but the reality was actually the opposite: the massed fleets that defended the British ports actually outnumbered the Armada by a significant margin, roughly 200 vs. 150 ships. The Armada did surpasse them in tonnage and crews, but many of their vessels were troop carriers that weren't necessarily an advantage in a naval battle (it also had a slight upper hand in number of guns, but not in the quality of those, which was quite poor due to the rushed way the fleet had been put together).

** Also, the ''Titanic'' is raised whole in the book of the same name. After it was discovered in real life to have broken in half, and that raising it was impossible, the whole incident is erased from canon, despite having been mentioned many, ''many'' times throughout the saga.

* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: Rondheim is transphobic, although this was not that scandalous by the time the book was written.

[[folder:Tropes found in The Mediterranean Caper]]

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* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: Rondheim, by today's standards at least.

** Pitt knows something is off about Kristi from the start as her tanned skin is nowhere dark enough for someone who's supposedly spent years living in the jungles of South America.

* WellIntentionedExtremist: F James Kelly is arguably this trope as he believes that the plan to [[spoiler:take over Latin America with a mining cartel]] fulfills an ideal. Sadly, his Dragon doesn't agree.

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* ProtagonistCenteredMorality: Pitt skips his citation with Jessie and then presents himself uninvited in her private party, all just to show off one of his cars. When Jessie throws him out of her party, this is treated as her being a RichBitch in the narration. (Cue the OhCrap moment when she hears from the Secretary of State who Pitt really is and how much power [=NUMA=] actually has over any marine business.)

[[folder:Tropes found in Treasure]]

** One of the bad guys is named Korori Yoshishu; not only ''Yoshishu'' is pretty much made up, ''Korori'' happens to be a Japanese onomatopoeia for dropping dead, and was also a colloquial name for cholera in 19th-century Japan – in other words, a highly unlikely name for a person.
** The name ''Murmoto'' is also phonetically impossible in Japanese.

* BetterToDieThanBeKilled: When it looks like the Malians are about to overrun Fort Foureau, Dirk prepares to [[spoiler: kill Eva and the rescued women so the enemy doesn't get to rape them. Fortunately, TheCavalry arrives just in time.]]

* MadeASlave: Dirk, Al, and Eva are sent to Tebezza, [[spoiler: a gold mine run by Kazim. Unfortunately, Tebezza's "employees" are actually slaves, and the main characters were sent to work...]]

* TheWorldIsNotReady: Subverted. When Perlmutter reveals to Pitt that [[spoiler: Abraham Lincoln wasn't killed at Ford's Theater but a double was, while the real Lincoln rests in a Confederate Ironclad in the desert, Perlmutter says it's better the world not know the truth but remember Lincoln as a martyr. However, Pitt insists that the world should know and it turns out that Lincoln is more revered than ever when the truth is uncovered.]]

[[folder:Tropes found in Inca Gold]]

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: It's claimed that UsefulNotes/SirFrancisDrake was in a huge numerical disadvantage when he fought the [[UsefulNotes/AngloSpanishWar15851604 Spanish Armada]]. This is often repeated in pop culture, but the reality was actually the opposite: the massed fleets that defended the British ports actually outnumbered the Armada by a significant margin, roughly 200 vs. 150 ships. The Armada did surpasse them in tonnage, but many of their vessels were transports and troop carriers that weren't necessarily an advantage in a naval battle (it also had a slight upper hand in number of guns, but not in the quality of those, which was quite poor due to the rushed way the fleet had been put together).

[[folder:Tropes found in Shock Wave]]

** One of Shang's minions is a captain by the name of Li Hung-Chang[[note]]which is the Wade-Giles form of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li_Hongzhang Li Hongzhang]][[/note]], who is referred to as "Captain Hung-Chang".

[[folder:Tropes found in Atlantis Found]]

* EvilPlan: The Wolfs and how. They plan to [[spoiler: use nanotechnology to cause the Ross Ice Shelf to collapse. This will cause a massive global cataclysm to wipe out civilization. The Wolfs will ride it out in specially constructed Ark ships with animals, plant life and 300,000 people who are under the belief an asteroid is going to hit Earth. Once the shockwaves die down, the Wolfs will rebuild Earth in their own image and be hailed as saviors by those unaware they're responsible for this holocaust.]]

[[folder: Tropes found in Valhalla Rising]]

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* EvilPlan: Kang will fire a missile packed with deadly bio-weapons to create a plague across the United States. With them distracted, North Korea can then take over South Korea without interference.

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* AlasPoorVillain: Most of Cussler's bad guys are pretty much undeniably evil, and have few redeeming qualities to boot, but perhaps one exception is the main villain of Zero Hour, who, following the deaths of his children and wife in a government-sponsored assassination attempt that left him horribly scarred, was so torn up by his loss that not only does he promise revenge against all society, but also develops a split personality representing his "son" from his conscience, who actually works ''with'' the good guys to defeat him. It's made apparent that the poor man is, between his destroyed memories, alternate personality, and lingering pain, nothing but a shadow of his former self, and when he is finally killed, he thanks the heroes for ending his misery.
* GodzillaThreshold: Invoked when it is discovered that Nikola Tesla's prototype zero-point energy system, the same type the villain is trying to recreate and exploit for his own ends, is highly unstable, and even in a best-case scenario can lose control and cause random earthquakes, and in the worst case....well, [[ApocalypseHow let's just say there's a good reason that the government tried to destroy all evidence of the system.]] When it is discovered that the villain has actually ''completed'' the system and is preparing to test it out by ''deliberately'' causing a massive earthquake, it's quickly decided that the best course of action is to [[NukeEm nuke]] his island base and erase it from the map.

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* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: It's mentioned that the Kradizak's have ten of their fellow Serbain war criminals with them as henchmen, and that they all call themselves the dirty dozen, but then those other ten men are never mentioned again.

[[folder:Tropes found in Fire Ice]]

** The book involves a lot of Russian intrigue and introduces a Russian agent whose face was scarred while exploring a wreck which Kurt had beat him to (and warned him against diving for). Surprisingly, the man doesn't hold a grudge against Kurt, recognizing it was his own stupidity that got him hurt and is trying to stop the villains.
** Most of the book implies that the villain is a descendant of the surviving Romanov daughter from the opening chapter but it later turns out that while there are surviving descendants, he himself isn't one and only thought he was.
* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Aside from the BigBad (who wants to use the tidal wave device to create devastation and become Tsar of Russia), there's Jack Shrager, owner of a new hotel in Maine who twisted a lot of arms to get his obstructive building put up and then went back on his promise to fire locals by importing EthnicMenialLabor. Shrager becomes the only fatality of the villains testing there tidal wave device when someone notices the signs of a tidal wave and everyone but Shtrager (even his girlfriend) heed the evacuation notice.

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* MysteriousProtector: Karl (for professor Kovacs in the prologue and his granddaughter in the present), being introduced as a mysterious, gun-totting man who is keeping an imprisoned Nazi scientist ahead of the communists but then turns out to be a resistance fighter, who promises to look out for the mans family.

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* BreakOutTheMuseumPiece: A WWI-era biplane is used to attack Brady Field. Pitt and Giordino fight it off using a WW2-era PBY Catalina flying-boat, with Pitt at the controls and Giordino shooting out a window with a WW2-vintage carbine.

* StatusQuoIsGod: In ''Night Probe'', Pitt retrieves an old treaty that proves that the US legally owns Canada. The president uses it as part of a plan to unite the two countries. It never happens. Possibly explained by the fact that in the next book, ''Literature/DeepSix'', which takes place a few months later, the same president is kidnapped, brainwashed into acting as a Soviet agent, and impeached after trying to dissolve Congress in order to push a pro-Soviet agenda. This may very well have killed the credibility of his other proposed policies.

* BigBad: One in every novel, along with TheDragon, and sometimes TheDarkChick.

* TheDarkChick: Teri von Till [[spoiler:averts this: not only is she on the good guys' side but she isn't even the BigBad's real niece.]]

* TheDarkChick: Kirsti Fyrie qualifies in a way, although we later find out that [[spoiler:she was blackmailed by Hermit Limited.]]

* TheDarkChick: [[spoiler:Emma]]

* TheDarkChick: Danielle Sarveaux

* BreakOutTheMuseumPiece: A WWI-era biplane is used to attack Brady Field.

* ImposterForgotOneDetail: What ultimately gives away Von Till alias [[spoiler:Admiral Heibert. He shaved his head to fit the real Von Till, unaware Von Till lost his hair due to disease and not by shaving. The fuzz on his scalp was the clue needed to prove who he was.]]
* MacGuffin: The Teaser is what the NUMA crew are searching for in the first place, although it isn't particularly relevant to the main plot.

* RomancingTheWidow: Teri.

* GovernmentAgencyOfFiction: The NIA, or National Intelligence Agency, turns up fairly often from ''Iceberg'' onwards. Its exact nature and mission is never quite made clear, but it seems to be a combination of the real-life National Security Agency (NSA) and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

* CoolCar: The Murmotos - either a [=V12=] engined sedan of 600 hp, or a 5.8 liter V8 sportscar. In RealLife, the [=JDM=] cars are electronically limited to 180 kph and all Japanese sportscars were limited to 280 metric hp prior to 2004 to get through the homologation rules for Japan Grand Touring Championship. Full [[AWorldwidePunomenon blown]] Toyota Supras and Nissan Skylines were for export to US mainland or Europe.

* UniversalDriversLicense

* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: Kurt Austin is more or less a replacement for Dirk Pitt.