cover image Odessa Sea

Odessa Sea

Clive and Dirk Cussler. Putnam, $29 (496p) ISBN 978-0-399-57551-8

On the Black Sea, the setting for bestseller Cussler’s intricately plotted 24th Dirk Pitt adventure, the seventh coauthored with son Dirk (after 2014’s Havana Storm), a Russian freighter has encountered a deadly mystery that has killed almost everyone aboard. Fortunately, Dirk and his crew aboard the Macedonia, an oceanographic research ship, are nearby, allowing Dirk and pal Al Giordino to investigate. After Dirk and Al rescue a lone crew member, a small explosion on the stern sends the freighter to the bottom of the sea. Ana Belova, a special investigator with Europol, and her partner, Lt. Petar Ralin, from the Bulgarian Organized Crime Directorate, assist Dirk and company in the hunt for Martin Hendriks, a Dutch businessman who’s working a complicated deal with the Russians to acquire a nuclear weapon. The pages whip by as the characters, at least the good guys, survive one deadly encounter after another, and the bad guys get their comeuppances. Readers will anxiously await Dirk’s next adventure. [em]Agent: Peter Lampack, Peter Lampack Agency. (Nov.) [/em]