How many Dirk Pitt books are there?

There are 28 Dirk Pitt novels as of November 2026, from The Mediterranean Caper (1973) to Clive Cussler Obsidian Sky (2026). Clive Cussler wrote the first 17 alone, co-wrote the next eight with his son Dirk Cussler, and Dirk Cussler has written the three published since Clive's death in 2020.

What order should I read the Dirk Pitt books in?

Publication order works, starting with The Mediterranean Caper, because each book stands alone. The one wrinkle is Pacific Vortex!, published sixth in 1983 but written first, and set before The Mediterranean Caper, which refers back to it. Chronological readers start there.

Which Clive Cussler first edition is the rarest?

The Mediterranean Caper (Pyramid, November 1973), a paperback original of 50,000 copies that was read to pieces, and Iceberg (Dodd, Mead, 1975), his first hardback, printed in 5,000 copies. Both sell for a few hundred pounds in collectable condition, far above any later title.

Is a Raise the Titanic! first edition valuable?

Rarely. The Viking 1976 trade first is common, and unsigned copies in jacket sold on eBay for £10 to £12 in autumn 2026. Signed or inscribed copies, especially with Cussler's Titanic sketch, are a different market, and dealers ask $225 or more. Book club copies, without a price on the jacket flap, are worth least of all.

Who writes the Dirk Pitt books now?

Dirk Cussler. He co-wrote the series with his father from Black Wind (2004) to Celtic Empire (2019), and since Clive Cussler's death on 24 February 2020 he has written The Devil's Sea (2021), The Corsican Shadow (2023) and Obsidian Sky (2026) under the Clive Cussler brand.

Clive Cussler First Editions: Dirk Pitt Order

Clive Cussler sold tens of millions of books, which is exactly why most of his first editions are worth little: from the 1990s a Dirk Pitt first printing ran to half a million copies or more. The collectable ones are the first three, published before anyone knew the name, and above all The Mediterranean Caper, a 1973 paperback original, and Iceberg, a 1975 hardback printed in 5,000 copies. This guide lists all 28 Dirk Pitt books in order, gives the copyright page points for each publisher, and shows what first editions have actually sold for.

Clive Cussler, seated at a table in a tan USO shirt, shakes hands with a US airman at a book signing — Clive Cussler signing books for US Air Force personnel at the Transit Center at Manas, Kyrgyzstan, in November 2011, on a USO tour. His signature, and the Titanic sketch he often added, are what lift a common Dirk Pitt first above shelf price. US Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Hank Hoegen, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons · Public domain

The identification points below follow the Clive Cussler Collector's Society's first editions list, cross-checked against auction and dealer descriptions. Where those sources disagree, we leave the point out.

The Dirk Pitt books in order

Publication order, with the American first edition. Pacific Vortex! was the first book Cussler wrote, but it did not appear until 1983, so chronological readers start there and everyone else starts with The Mediterranean Caper. The books stand alone, and the series page for Dirk Pitt keeps a checklist you can tick off.

No.	Title	Year	American first edition
1	The Mediterranean Caper (Mayday! in Britain)	1973	Pyramid Books, paperback original
2	Iceberg	1975	Dodd, Mead
3	Raise the Titanic!	1976	Viking Press
4	Vixen 03	1978	Viking Press
5	Night Probe!	1981	Bantam Books
6	Pacific Vortex!	1983	Bantam Books, paperback original
7	Deep Six	1984	Simon & Schuster
8	Cyclops	1986	Simon & Schuster
9	Treasure	1988	Simon & Schuster
10	Dragon	1990	Simon & Schuster
11	Sahara	1992	Simon & Schuster
12	Inca Gold	1994	Simon & Schuster
13	Shock Wave	1996	Simon & Schuster
14	Flood Tide	1997	Simon & Schuster
15	Atlantis Found	1999	G. P. Putnam's Sons
16	Valhalla Rising	2001	G. P. Putnam's Sons
17	Trojan Odyssey	2003	G. P. Putnam's Sons
18	Black Wind, with Dirk Cussler	2004	G. P. Putnam's Sons
19	Treasure of Khan, with Dirk Cussler	2006	G. P. Putnam's Sons
20	Arctic Drift, with Dirk Cussler	2008	G. P. Putnam's Sons
21	Crescent Dawn, with Dirk Cussler	2010	G. P. Putnam's Sons
22	Poseidon's Arrow, with Dirk Cussler	2012	G. P. Putnam's Sons
23	Havana Storm, with Dirk Cussler	2014	G. P. Putnam's Sons
24	Odessa Sea, with Dirk Cussler	2016	G. P. Putnam's Sons
25	Celtic Empire, with Dirk Cussler	2019	G. P. Putnam's Sons
26	Clive Cussler's The Devil's Sea, by Dirk Cussler	2021	G. P. Putnam's Sons
27	Clive Cussler The Corsican Shadow, by Dirk Cussler	2023	G. P. Putnam's Sons
28	Clive Cussler Obsidian Sky, by Dirk Cussler	2026	G. P. Putnam's Sons

Cussler began writing in 1965, while his wife worked night shifts, and died at home in Paradise Valley, Arizona, on 24 February 2020, aged 88. Dirk Cussler co-wrote the eight books from Black Wind to Celtic Empire and has written the three since. Obsidian Sky, the 28th, was published by Putnam in New York and Sphere in London on 10 November 2026. The NUMA Files, the Oregon Files, the Isaac Bell and the Fargo novels are separate series and are listed on the Clive Cussler author page.

The three firsts worth looking for

The Mediterranean Caper, Pyramid Books, November 1973. Cussler's first published book was a mass-market paperback, not a hardback, which makes it the one true "paperback original" in the series until Pacific Vortex!. Pyramid printed 50,000 copies at $1.25, and a cheap paperback read on a beach in 1974 did not survive in collectable condition. The copyright page states "First printing November 1973" with no number line, and the book was nominated for the 1974 Edgar Award for best paperback original. A first printing sold on eBay for $250 (about £190) and dealers ask between about $120 and $540 depending on condition. In Britain the book appeared as Mayday!, and our catalogue records the Severn House hardback of 1978 as the earliest British edition.

Iceberg, Dodd, Mead, September 1975. The first Cussler hardback, and the scarcest: 5,000 copies at $7.95. There is no first edition statement, only "Copyright 1975 by Clive Cussler" and no numbers, so the jacket does the work. The front flap should carry the $7.95 price. RR Auction sold an unsigned copy, near fine in a price-clipped jacket, for $334 (about £250) against a $200 estimate, and dealers ask several times that for clean signed copies.

Raise the Titanic!, Viking Press, October 1976. The book that made Cussler's name, and the first with a historical prologue, a device every later Pitt novel repeats. The copyright page reads "First published in 1976 by The Viking Press" with nothing after it; the boards are blue with a green backstrip lettered in gold, and the jacket is priced $8.95. Viking printed plenty, and a book club edition from the same year muddies the water, so unsigned trade firsts are cheap: two sold on eBay in September and October 2026 for £10.87 and £11.22. What collectors pay for is Cussler's signature, often with a sketch of the Titanic or the inscription "Get it up!", and signed firsts are offered by dealers at $225 (about £170) and upwards.

How to identify a Cussler first edition

The points change with the publisher, which is the usual way with a long career. Check them in this order: the copyright page, then the jacket price, then the binding colours.

Years	Publisher	What the first printing says	Jacket price
1973	Pyramid Books	"First printing November 1973", no numbers	$1.25 cover price
1975	Dodd, Mead	No statement; "Copyright 1975 by Clive Cussler", no numbers	$7.95
1976 to 1978	Viking Press	"First published in 1976 by The Viking Press" (1978 for Vixen 03), no numbers	$8.95, then $9.95
1981	Bantam Books	Number line 0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1	$13.95
1983	Bantam Books (paperback)	Number line 0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1; die-cut porthole cover	$3.95 cover price
1984 to 1990	Simon & Schuster	Number line 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1	$17.95 to $21.95
1992 to 1997	Simon & Schuster	1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 (Sahara, Flood Tide) or 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1	$23 to $26
1999 onwards	G. P. Putnam's Sons	10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 or 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2	$26.95 and up

A few points of detail:

Night Probe! (1981) is the first Cussler with a number line, and the first printing's line begins 0 9 8, a Bantam habit; the lowest figure goes with each later printing. Bantam's hardback is also a book collectors sometimes miss, because the paperback is what most people remember. Bantam printed 50,000 copies, bound in blue with silver lettering.
Pacific Vortex! (1983) has a die-cut cover. The first printing's front cover has a porthole cut through it, a feature later printings dropped. It is a paperback, so condition is everything.
For Simon & Schuster and Putnam, the line must be complete. Both forms of number line mean a first printing only while the 1 is present. Our guide to number lines explains how the two arrangements work, and the number line decoder will read yours.
Binding colours are a cross-check, not proof. The Society records each title's boards and backstrip: Deep Six in blue boards with a dark blue backstrip, Cyclops blue with black, Treasure blue with blue, Dragon blue with red, Inca Gold red with black, Flood Tide red with black. A rebound or faded copy still needs the copyright page.
Book club copies exist for most titles. They have no price on the jacket flap and often a blind-stamped mark on the lower back board. Raise the Titanic! in particular is more often found as a club copy than a trade first; our guide to book club editions gives the tells, and the book club edition checker runs through them.

Why the later firsts are so cheap

The Society's print-run figures tell the story. Iceberg: 5,000. Night Probe!: 50,000. Sahara: 419,000. Inca Gold: 500,000. Atlantis Found: 750,000. A first printing of three quarters of a million copies is a first edition in name only, and so the Simon & Schuster and Putnam firsts sell for the price of a good second-hand hardback. Verified eBay sales from August to October 2026 put Cyclops at £8 to £19, Deep Six at £8, Dragon at £3 to £7 and Vixen 03, the better Viking title, at £22 in an unclipped jacket.

That makes the series cheap to complete and expensive only at the front. A full run of the 25 Clive Cussler-era firsts in jacket can be put together for a few hundred pounds plus whatever the first two books cost, and the first two books are where the money goes.

British first editions

Cussler's British publishers changed as often as his American ones. From our catalogue, the first British editions are: Sphere for Iceberg (1976), Michael Joseph for Raise the Titanic! (1977), Hodder & Stoughton for Vixen 03 (1978) and Night Probe! (1981), Piatkus for Pacific Vortex! (1983), Hamish Hamilton for Deep Six (1984) and Cyclops (1986), Grafton for Treasure (1988) and Dragon (1990), HarperCollins for Sahara (1993) and Inca Gold (1994), then Michael Joseph from Atlantis Found (2000) through the Dirk Cussler years, and Sphere for Obsidian Sky (2026). A British first follows the American one by months to a year and is the secondary edition for every title: see first edition against first American edition for how the two markets treat them. The exception a British collector should know is The Mediterranean Caper, where the retitled Mayday! editions are the only British form of the book.

What first editions have sold for

Sold prices, not asking prices. Dollar sales are converted at the European Central Bank rate of 16 October 2026. They are past results, moved by jacket, condition and signature, not a valuation of your copy.

Book	Copy	Sale	Price
The Mediterranean Caper, Pyramid 1973	First printing, paperback	eBay, sold listing	$250 (about £190)
Iceberg, Dodd, Mead 1975	First edition, near fine, jacket price-clipped, unsigned	RR Auction	$334 (about £250)
Raise the Titanic!, Viking 1976	First edition in jacket, unsigned	eBay, September and October 2026	£10.87 and £11.22
Vixen 03, Viking 1978	First edition, first printing, jacket unclipped	eBay, October 2026	£22.40
Vixen 03, Hodder & Stoughton 1978	First British edition	eBay, September 2026	£12.29
Cyclops, Simon & Schuster 1986	First edition in jacket	eBay, August to October 2026	£8.18 to £19.41
Deep Six, Simon & Schuster 1984	First edition, first printing	eBay, August 2026	£8.25
Dragon, Simon & Schuster 1990	First edition, first printing	eBay, August and October 2026	£3.14 to £6.71

The eBay rows are our own verified records, and each book's page carries the full list as new sales are checked. Signed copies sit above all of these: dealers ask $225 and up for a signed Raise the Titanic!, and a signed Iceberg is offered at four figures. If you own a Cussler first, the value checker will tell you whether yours is one of the three that matter, and the signed and inscribed books guide covers what a signature adds.