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A PRIMITIVE BRAZILIAN TRIBE WHOSE SECRETS COULD SAVE LIVES . . .
A BILLIONAIRE TYCOON SET ON WORLD DOMINATION . . .
An investigation into the sudden deaths of a pod of gray whales leads National Underwater & Marine Agency leader Kurt Austin to the Mexican coast, where someone tries to put him and his mini-sub permanently out of commission. Meanwhile, in South America’s lush hills, a specially assigned NUMA® team discovers a murdered body—a member of a mysterious local tribe, who live like ghosts beyond a five-part waterfall the locals call the Hand of God, and are rumored to be led by a mythical white goddess. Now they are in danger from a vicious cadre of bio-pirates intent on stealing medicinal discoveries worth millions.
Soon, Austin and his crew realize that they’re working opposite ends of the same grand scheme, and must race against time to save the world’s freshwater supply from a twisted eco-extortionist. But every step toward salvation takes them deeper into a dense jungle of treachery, blackmail, and death.
A NOVEL FROM THE NUMA® FILES
Reading a Clive Cussler novel is like watching several movies at once. He's a master of the jump cut, moving the action from one continent to another with an entirely different cast of characters, good guys and bad, in each place. He always manages to pull the various characters, plots, and counterplots together, though, and the heroes always triumph in the end after saving the world from eco-terrorists, megalomaniacs with their ambitions primed for world domination, and a few regular old criminals thrown in for good measure. In this new adventure from the National Underwater & Marine Agency (NUMA) files, Kurt Austin and his partner Joe Zavala nearly die during a powerboat race when a pod of dead, bloated gray whales bobs to the surface and obstructs the race course. Attempting to discover what killed the whales, Kurt and Joe track their migratory route to a mysterious underwater laboratory on the Baja Peninsula. Once again they narrowly miss death when the lab explodes, destroying their minisubmarine and almost poaching them alive. What seemed like a simple scientific investigation turns into something very different: a confrontation with a 7-foot Valkyrie who's bent on taking over the earth's depleted freshwater reserves. In order to thwart her plans, Austin and Zavala venture deep into the jungle of the Venezuelan rain forest to find a supposedly mythical tribal goddess (one with a Ph.D. in science, of course) whose secret formula to desalinate seawater can put the kibosh on the Valkyrie's plans. Helped by a husband-wife NUMA team who've already made the goddess's acquaintance, plus the always fascinating techno-toys so beloved of superheroes, Kurt and Joe save the day. But before they do, there's plenty of heart-stopping action, random acts of murder and mutilation, and even a little romance. Great pacing, plenty of gadgets, a strong narrative, and bigger-than-life heroes and villains. If you've run out of summer action flicks already, make your own popcorn and curl up with Blue Gold instead. --Jane Adams
