Cussler's novels are fun, they aren't too taxing on the brain and generally whack along at a fair old pace, a bit 'Boy's Own' it is true, but I kind of like that as they seem to have no pretensions of being anything other than that, especially when he puts himself in them as an incidental character, which is indicative of not taking yourself too seriously. They remind me of the Biggles books by Capt. W.E. Johns in that sense, which incidentally, have a lot of great WW1 historical detail in them for all their 'thrash the Hun' mentality.
Cussler's books are a decent 'holiday read', and again they transfer well to celuloid, with Sahara being a great, fun film. I suspect Black Wind (another one with the same character in it) would make a good, fun movie too.
Chock