Blue Gold : A Novel from the NUMA Files
Reading a Clive Cussler novel is like watching several movies at once.  He's a master of the jump cut, moving the action from one continent to another with an entirely different cast of characters, good guys and bad, in each place. He always manages to pull the various characters, plots, and counterplots together, though, and the heroes always triumph in the end after saving the world from eco-terrorists, megalomaniacs with their ambitions primed for world domination, and a few regular old criminals thrown in for good measure.  In this new adventure from the National Underwater & Marine Agency (NUMA) files, Kurt Austin and his partner Joe  Zavala nearly die during a powerboat race when a pod of dead, bloated gray  whales bobs to the surface and obstructs the race course. Attempting to discover  what killed the whales, Kurt and Joe track their migratory route to a mysterious  underwater laboratory on the Baja Peninsula. Once again they narrowly miss death  when the lab explodes, destroying their minisubmarine and almost poaching them alive.  What seemed like a simple scientific investigation turns into something very different: a confrontation  with a 7-foot Valkyrie who's bent on taking over the earth's depleted freshwater reserves.  In order to thwart her plans, Austin and Zavala venture deep into the jungle of the Venezuelan rain forest to find a  supposedly mythical tribal goddess (one with a Ph.D. in science, of course) whose secret formula to desalinate seawater  can put the kibosh on the Valkyrie's plans.  Helped by a husband-wife NUMA team who've already made the goddess's acquaintance, plus the always fascinating techno-toys so beloved of  superheroes, Kurt and Joe save the day.  But before they do, there's plenty of heart-stopping action, random acts of murder and mutilation, and even a little romance. Great pacing, plenty of gadgets, a strong narrative, and bigger-than-life heroes and villains.  If you've run out of summer action flicks already, make your own popcorn and  curl up withBlue Goldinstead.--Jane Adams