This 454-page thriller, written in the time frame between the outbreak of SARS and swine influenza, puts a new twist on biological warfare. Indeed, what if an insidious crime syndicate were to infiltrate medical research and then, seeking huge profits, practice extortion on a worldwide scale?
Cussler's best known work, "Raise the Titanic!" (1976) involved the recovery of the famous ocean liner from the bottom of the north Atlantic. His fiction has continued to focus on nautical themes, invariably working in some esoteric historical event — the current work features New England whalers in the 1840s right out of "Moby Dick" — and then tying the remote past to contemporary events.
Like techno-thriller writer Tom Clancy, Cussler also maintains his popularity by appealing to down-home American virtues. To qualify as a hero in a Cussler novel, you must (1) hold an advanced degree in nautical science; (2) be able to shoot the wings off a fly; (3) drive a domestically built car with at least 400 horsepower; and (4) enjoy consuming humongous quantities of barbecued animal parts washed down with alcoholic beverages.