This is the first instalment in the Chris Black Adventure series.

Marine biologist Chris Black is not your stereotypical science guy who stands behind a computer screen all day. This is fortunate for him when he is attacked by two formidable enemies whilst returning home from work one day and manages to disarm them with his quick thinking and quicker moves. What exactly they wanted with him remains a mystery, though. His team returns to their last project, a deep-sea research dive, in the hope of an answer. What have they unknowingly uncovered there and who wants to hurt them to protect the secrets they have buried?

In the past few years I have discovered a sub-genre of books that I just devour! I don't know what to call them but their are all action-packed science-fiction/thriller/horror amalgamations. They might not all be faultless but I can forgive them their flaws for how fun and furious their story-lines are. This book was no exception to that. It read like an action-orientated Hollywood blockbuster, complete with some seemingly sound scientific backing (but I'm no judge of this), a team of good guys who form a lovable team and so are easy to root for, a plethora of bad guys who are uncomplicated in their villainy and so easy to abhor, an adventure into the unknown, and a sprinkling of romance. It provided me with unadulterated enjoyment and that was precisely what I was looking for.

I loved this audiobook.

It is crammed with dashing heros and daring do. Very much in the style of one of my favourite authors, Desmond Bagley. It is packed full of swash and buckle, and delivered a great adventure story full of fully rounded characters that I really cared about.

I loved the fact that the main character, Chris Black, was a scientist, and I loved the details about the launching of the ROVs , and the scientific activities that supported the plot.

The narrator was engaging, and kept me on the edge of my seat throughout.

This definitely won't be my last outing with Chris Black, in fact I'm off to find some more of his stories right now!

Highly recomended for all the adventurer lovers out there.

Wasn’t sure about this one at the start but then it got going and it was right up my street. Loved the Chris Black character and his bad ass ways and his sense of humour in the most bizarre situations. Would definitely like to read more in this series. Loved the narration. Sometimes I felt a bit lost when it came to the ins and outs of the research dives as they could get descriptive but still a good storyline...

Thanks to Netgalley and CamCat Publishing LLC for the opportunity to read and review this ARC that was published on the 4th of Aug.

The narrator was fairly monotone and I was a bit taken-a-back when I heard swearing.
Being honest, this isn't my usual genre but I thought I'd give it a go. By chapter 9 I was beginning to get some idea of who the main characters were, plus the pace picked up a bit.
I'm afraid that before too long, I had lost interest.
There was some lovely descriptions of scenes. I particularly liked this phrase 'complicated mosaic of memories' when describing some background information about a character.
Maybe I would have been better to have read the book, because I would have read quicker through the quite parts of the story....
Sorry, it wasn't for me.

In the book Into A Canyon Deep, author James Lindholm writes about Chris Black and his group of underwater science explorers. What is down there? And why are people trying to kill Chris and his friends and fellow workers? And is romance beginning for Chris?
This is a good roller coaster ride of a book. The audio book was well done and the narrator did a good job of pacing his reading to keep me engaged. I would recommend this book. I received a copy of this e-book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

When I read the blurb for this book I thought it sounded like Greig Beck meets Matthew Reilly..... But it pains me to say I just could not get into it. Something was missing for me and I think I wasn't emotionally invested in any of the characters.

Thank you though for giving me this opportunity to explore a new author.

I have mixed feelings about this book.

I love the idea of a protagonist who is essentially John McClane from Die Hard—that is, if Bruce Willis’s character happened to be an ass-kicking marine biologist rather than a cop. I love his sass and the degree to which he complicates the nerd/scientist stereotype.

I also enjoy how the relationship between Chris and his side-kick Mac brings to mind the investigative duo of Elvis Cole and Joe Pike in Robert Crais’s mysteries, in the sense that Mac and Joe are both ex-military and seem more comfortable with ethically- and legally-questionable tactics. I’m also amused by Chris and Mac’s use of the term “Charlie-Foxtrot” when they likely mean “cluster-f#ck”.

That being said, I don’t love how the story’s villains are incorporated. Their scenes feel too contrived and their conversations sound like bad B-movie dialogue, or like they were written by grade schoolers. The narrator even refers to them as “henchmen” and “the bad guys” several times, which feels like lazy writing.

It also feels like the plot fits together a bit too neatly; the answers come too easily, the villains discovered too quickly and their moves unfeasibly sloppy when you consider the apparent sophistication of their evil plans and how long they’ve purportedly gone undetected.

I think I would read more in this series just to see what else Chris and Mac get up to. I feel like they have a lot of potential as characters, but the stories need more plausible villains and perhaps more 3-dimentional characters in general.

I’d recommend this to fans of Clive Cussler for the marine themes, to Die Hard fans for the cheeky McClane-style sass, and even to B-movie fans for the terrible villain dialogue. The plot is simple enough, the number of characters manageable enough, and the degree of “on-screen” violence tame enough that I’d consider this a “light read” or “beach read” within the parameters of the thriller genre. “Thrller lite”, perhaps?

Very well written characters. Extremely taught mystery. Loved the ecological point of view the book takes without beating the drum too hard.

I loved this one!

The setting of this book is unique and the pace is great! I would highly recommended for fans of Lincoln Child, since it has the same adventurous spirit and relatively complex storyline.

My only criticism is that there were a ton of main characters and for some reason I found it difficult to keep them straight. Maybe that wouldn’t have been a problem if I read it rather than listened.

I did also love the narrator. I believe I’ve listened to him before (I want to say on a Mary Kubica novel?). Definitely an excellent choice!