Other links related to this book:

• Shadow Divers: About the Book (Author's website)
• Shadow Divers (Wikipedia)
• Shadow Divers (2009) (IMDB page on upcoming movie)
• Interview with the Diver (John Chatterton)
• Dive Portal (John & Richie's DVD Magazine)

Patrick’s Review: This book is a great read for anyone interested in diving, wreck diving, shipwreck exploration, history or the icons of our sport. Since I am passionately interested in all of these subjects, I was anxious to read this book as soon as possible. The book is well written and I have had the opportunity to correspond with the main characters of the book, Richie Kohler and John Chatterton, on several occasions. This is easily my favorite story about diving and I recommend it highly to divers and non-divers alike.

Shadow Divers is a gripping story that grabs you in the first few pages and never lets you go. This book is one of the many reasons that John Chatterton and Richie Kohler have been catapulted to the status of rock stars in the diving community. In May 2006, Gary Gentile wrote a rebuttal of Shadow Divers called Shadow Divers Exposed: the Real Saga of the U-869, which I also read. In his book, Gary disparages John and Richie and states that many of the claims made in Shadow Divers are incomplete, over dramatized, inaccurate, misrepresentative or outright untrue when compared with the factual events surrounding the finding and identification of the U 869.

Since I was not present during these events, I have no way of knowing if Shadow Divers is a true and complete account or whether Gary’s description is accurate. I imagine that both authors overstate their account to some extent. So what if they do. Even though Kurson may lay it on a little thick dramatically here and there, John and Ritchie found, researched and identified the wreck of the U 869. The fact remains that they actually identified it by diving it and floating irrefutable proof of identification. John and Richie did not just look at some documents in a library, dive the wreck a few times and say that the wreck can only be boat “X;” only to have another diver, researcher, or organization come along later and ‘prove’ it is not boat “X” but boat “Y,” like some critics have been known to do.