Journey of the Pharaohs: A Novel from the NUMA Files

Bestseller Cussler’s lively 17th NUMA Files novel (after 2018’s Sea of Greed, also with Brown) finds Kurt Austin, the director of special projects for the U.S. government’s National Underwater and Marine Agency, on the coast of Scotland, where he and sidekick Joe Zavala witness a trawler smashing against the rocks. Kurt and Joe rescue the crew and pull fragments of a stone tablet with Egyptian hieroglyphics from the sinking boat, along with a logbook from 1927 kept by a transatlantic pilot who crashed in Spain. Some murderous artifact smugglers, who belong to an organization called the Bloodstone Group, want these relics back. When interpreted by a British professor, these discoveries lead Kurt and Joe and their new partner, MI5 agent Morgan Manning, on a chase across Europe to America, where they end up in a treasure-filled cave in the Grand Canyon with Bloodstone agents hot on their heels. The twist ending fits neatly into the Cussler canon. Series fans will be pleased. Agent: Peter Lampack, Peter Lampack Agency. (Mar.)