Dirk Pitt returns in a fast-paced adventure that takes the latter-day James Bond from a Russian lake to the sands of Mongolia in search of the treasure of Xanadu. Meanwhile, a murderous tycoon is bent on world domination, and only Pitt and his crack NUMA team can stop him. Cussler has been writing the Pitt thrillers for 30-odd years, and he has the recipe down pat. (His son, Dirk, recently has assumed the role of coauthor.) Fans of the long-running series will hungrily gobble this dish of genre pudding, but those who find Cussler's work slick and formulaic won't discover anything here to change their minds. David Pitt
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