Is Black Wind the first Dirk Pitt novel co-written by Dirk Cussler?

Yes. Black Wind (2004) is the first Dirk Pitt novel Clive Cussler co-wrote with his son, Dirk Cussler, and it is also the first in the series to put Dirk Pitt's adult children, Dirk Jr. and Summer, in the lead field roles.

Do I need to read the earlier Dirk Pitt books before Black Wind?

No. Black Wind is the 18th book in the Dirk Pitt series but works as a starting point: it introduces Dirk Pitt's children as new leads and recaps enough of Dirk Pitt's background as it goes.

Black Wind by Clive Cussler, Dirk Cussler

Black Wind

A Dirk Pitt Novel

Military Thriller

Pages: 496
Published: 2004
Language: English

Synopsis

Oceanographer Dirk Pitt and his children must race against time to stop a modern-day catastrophe. They uncover secret World War II battle plans involving biological weapons hidden in lost submarines. This high-stakes adventure pits them against a truly evil force determined to reshape the world.

How it reads

Tense Adventurous

Quest Survival Family Saga

Prose complexity 4/10

Content warnings (1)

Violence

Genres

Subjects

Biological warfare Biological weapons Marine biologists Marine engineers Pacific Coast (U.S.)Submarines (Ships)

Places

Aleutian Islands Incheon, South Korea Pacific Coast (U.S.)

Dirk Pitt Jr.Protagonist

A NUMA marine engineer and Dirk Pitt's son, making his debut as series lead here while he dives on a scuttled Japanese submarine and its wartime cargo.

Dae-jong KangAntagonist

A wealthy Incheon industrialist secretly advancing a North Korean scheme to strike the United States with a biological weapon recovered from the sunken submarines.

TongjuAntagonist

An assassin carrying out a string of killings on Kang's orders, staged to look like the work of an unrelated terrorist group.

Dirk PittSupporting

Head of NUMA and the series' longtime hero, who joins the hunt for the lost WWII submarines while his adult children take the field lead for the first time.

Summer PittSupporting

A NUMA marine biologist and Dirk Pitt's daughter, twin sister to Dirk Jr., who is pulled into the search for the missing submarines alongside her brother.

All characters in Black Wind

Clive CusslerAdventure · Fiction·1931–2020

Dirk CusslerAdventure · Suspense·b. 1961

Yes. Black Wind (2004) is the first Dirk Pitt novel Clive Cussler co-wrote with his son, Dirk Cussler, and it is also the first in the series to put Dirk Pitt's adult children, Dirk Jr. and Summer, in the lead field roles.
No. Black Wind is the 18th book in the Dirk Pitt series but works as a starting point: it introduces Dirk Pitt's children as new leads and recaps enough of Dirk Pitt's background as it goes.