Copyright 2003 by Sandecker RILLP. Published by GP Putnam & Sons, New York.
This is #17 (of 27) in the series of adventure/fantasy novels by Clive Cussler featuring Dirk Pitt, Special Activities Director of NUMA, the National Underwater Marine Administration. I was surprised that there are 10 to follow this one because (spoiler alert) in this one Dirk retires, gets married and generally intends to become a normal human being rather than the superhuman engineer who roams the world saving us all from impending disaster and doom.
Pitt is also a parent. At the end of #16 he learns that a long-lost love gave birth to male/female twins who are now of age and are both working for NUMA. It certainly appears that this book intends to transition the derring-do from the elder Pitt to his two children, Dirk Jr and Summer. Some of this book’s plot involves saving Dirk Jr and Summer from two near-death experiences.
The main plot, though, concerns the Odyssey Corporation, a mysterious conglomerate that has virtually cornered the world’s supply of platinum. They are also involved in a strange engineering project, with the Chinese government, in Nicaragua. Why is this mysterious corporation, led by an equally mysterious CEO named Specter, doing in Nicaragua? And how is it all related to the discovery (by Dirk Jr and Summer, of course) of Bronze Age artifacts in shallow water in the Caribbean? They are all related, of course, in a most unlikely way. And it all is a threat to North America and western Europe. Rest assured, however, that Dirk and NUMA saved us. Again.
What a guy!
You have to suspend disbelief to read a Cussler novel. And he is not a great writer. But it is fun. A good book for beach reading.
7 out of 10.