Cussler, C: Poseidon's Arrow

"Dirk Pitt is oceanography's answer to Indiana Jones," praises the Associated Press. "Exotic locations, ruthless villains and many narrow escapes-Cussler's fans come for swashbuckling [and] he delivers." And now Pitt's back to find a crucial piece of marine tech that could reshape the United States' defense program.

It is the greatest advance in American defense technology in decades-an attack submarine capable of incredible underwater speeds. There is only one problem: A key element of the prototype is missing-and the man who developed it is dead.

At the same time, ships have started vanishing mid-ocean, and when a few reappear, bodies are found aboard burned to a crisp.Could these mysterious events be connected to an Italian submarine that itself disappeared in 1943?

It is up to NUMA director Dirk Pitt and his team, aided by a beautiful NCIS agent and by Pitt's children, marine engineer Dirk and oceanographer Summer, to go on a desperate international chase to find the truth, from Washington to Mexico, Idaho to Panama. What they discover at the end of it is a much, much greater threat than even they imagined.

Filled with breathtaking suspense and extraordinary imagination, Poseidon's Arrow is further proof that when it comes to adventure writing, nobody beats Clive Cussler.