Booklist Reviews
Kurt Austin and his NUMA team roar into action in this latest installment of the long-running NUMA Files series. Tasked by the president of the U.S. to find out what could have caused the devastating firestorms that demolished three oil rigs, Austin makes a startling discovery that leads him to an evil genius with plans to control the world's energy supply. It's fairly formulaic stuff, but that's no surprise; the NUMA files novels are pretty much identical structurally—only the details change. But give the authors full credit for making their evil genius a woman. This isn't a spoiler: Cussler and Brown drop this revelation quite early on. Female villains of the evil-genius type are few and far between in the high-concept-adventure subgenre, and it's refreshing to find one here. And the writing goes less by the numbers than in some of the recent NUMA Files books. Cussler's devoted readership will find this among the better entries in the series. Copyright 2018 Booklist Reviews.
Kirkus Reviews
The latest maritime thriller in the NUMA series starring Kurt Austin (The Rising Sea, 2018, etc.) In 1968, the French submarine Minerve sinks without a trace in the Mediterranean. In the present day, an oil rig explodes in the Gulf of Mexico, killing and badly injuring many workers. Enter Kurt Austin, head of Special Projects at the National Underwater Marine Agency. Kurt leads a team that assists in marine emergencies, so they respond to the Mayday call and quickly find a stream of underwater flame—escaping gas is burning in the water, down "as far as the eye could see." It's a fire that needs no oxygen, a phenomenon Kurt's team has never seen. NUMA calls the disaster clear-cut sabotage, and Kurt's assignment is to find the guilty party. Said party is Tessa Franco, CEO of Novum Industria, who is busily sabotaging oil production around the world. She wants to promote her new fuel cell to replace "this mad reliance on fossil fuels" and become even more stinking rich than she already is. She has "infected half the world's major oil fields" by pumping oil-eating bacteria into them, rendering them useless. "She is the oil crisis," Kurt tells the president. Kurt's and Tessa's teams race to locate the Minerve, which may have critical genetic research Israel commissioned half a century ago. There are great action scenes underwater and on the surface, where Tessa's seaplane, the Monarch, is almost as big as a 747. Rotten to the core, Tessa wants her lackeys to "get rid of Austin once and for all." Her odds look mighty good considering the firepower she brings to bear. Fast-paced, imaginative fun. May Kurt and crew survive, as there's a good series to continue. Copyright Kirkus 2018 Kirkus/BPI Communications. All rights reserved.
Publishers Weekly Reviews
Kurt Austin and the other members of the National Underwater Marine Agency must once again save the world in bestseller Cussler's solid 16th NUMA Files novel (after