Iceberg (Dirk Pitt novel)

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Iceberg is the name of an adventure techno-thriller novel, written by by Clive Cussler. It is the third book in the Dirk Pitt series, and the second of Cussler's published novels to feature the character.

It was first published in hardcover on September 1975 in the United States by Dodd, Mead & Company; the paperback was published by Bantam in 1977. In 1984, Bantam also published a mass market paperback edition, and a "reissued edition" paperback was published by Pocket Books in January 1995, then again in 1996 by Simon & Schuster.

Dirk Pitt is summoned from his vacation on the sunny beaches of California and sent to the Arctic when an iceberg is discovered that contains the remains of a missing luxury yacht. The yacht was on its way to a top-secret meeting with the White House... and within it the entire crew is dead, incinerated at their posts. This discovery sets Pitt on a deadly adventure as he tries to stop a multi-millionaire madman from upsetting the balance of world power and possibly causing the collapse of the world’s economy.

Tropes used in Iceberg (Dirk Pitt novel) include:

• Camp Gay: Dirk Pitt pretends to be this to fool a potential enemy.
• Continuity Error: Pitt is said to be 32 years old in the novel. However, in Arctic Drift, set over 30 years later, his age is only 55.
• Something They Would Never Say: Pitt describes a steak to Kirsti, who has spent most of her life in New Guinea, as being wrapped in echidna seaweed. For those of us who're unfamiliar with the animal and/or haven't played Sonic the Hedgehog recently, he explains to his friend after Kirsti leaves 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".
• Unresolved Sexual Tension: Deconstructed when Dirk wakes up in a hospital and Sandecker's secretary, Tidi Royal, starts hitting on him. When he shuts her down, Tidi protests he doesn't even know she exists, whereupon he reels off her vital statistics--including the location of a mole--and informs her he will never "play games" that close to the Admiral. At the end of the book, Tidi has hooked up with a secondary character, and is never seen again.