  |
|
|
|
Index Interviews: Karen Swenson Articles: Where Do You Get Your Ideas...? (Part I) You've Finished Writing the Play: Now What? (Part II) An Inside Look At... george jr. Upcoming Events Calendar Book Reviews Reader Mail Return to This Issue's Index Return to Homepage Subscribe
|
|
Mystery Book ReviewsPage One of ThreeShadow Wars by Clyde FarnsworthDonald I Fine, Feb., 1998.Hardcover, 432 pages. ISBN: 1556115180. Ordering information: Amazon.com. | Amazon.co.uk 
U.S. Intelligence has come upon some remarkable news about
recent breakthroughs by chemists and physicists working
at an Israeli facility. It appears that scientists working
at the facility have discovered a way to engineer gold
cheaply and that Israel is now manufacturing and selling
this gold. If this is true, it could collapse the value
of gold and cause an economic crisis. The U.S. wants answers
and sends a renowned physicist, Hillsdale Landover, to
determine if this situation is true, to get details and
return with a report to the president. In Israel, Landover
soon finds himself on more than just a fact finding missing and
is nearly murdered his first day by a young knife-wielding boy.
To get him out of harm's way Rafe Ravid,
the Israeli contact, fakes his return back to the U.S. in
order to sneak him into the gold making facility in Dimona.
Here, Professor Landover meets Rachel, Ravid's daughter,
who works in the facility and has made some discoveries of her own.
Skeptical of the gold making process, Landover does not get on
Rachel's good side. However, the Iraqis want the
information too and Landover soon finds himself pursued by
assailants who murder Rafe. Landover turns to Rachel for
help and the two of them find themselves in a run for their
lives from diabolic villains and their own governments.
Farnsworth's tale is full of fascinating details of the physical process of the alchemy of gold, chilling political facts which give insight into the inner-workings of the Iraqi, Israel, Russian and US Governments and secret services, historical and modern details of the Middle-East and heart-pounding suspense. A dramatic and effective entrance onto the political/thriller stage from former New York Times writer Clyde Farnsworth. Flood Tide by Clive CusslerSimon and Schuster, Sep., 1997.Hardcover, 544 pages. ISBN: 0684802988. Ordering information: Amazon.com. | Amazon.co.uk 
Clive Cussler strikes again as America's foremost action
storyteller with Flood Tide. In Cussler's 11th undersea adventure,
Dirk Pitt and his sidekick Al Giordino are up against the evil
billionaire Qin Shang. As the fourth richest man in the world,
Shang smuggles Chinese by the millions into the U.S., Canada
and Europe. With the population of the U.S. exploding, it
seems that the Chinese will soon control the West Coast. Could
the U.S. be setting up for another civil war? Pitt picks up on the
trail of the smuggling operation while vacationing on Orion Lake
near Seattle. On the bottom of the lake, Pitt discovers thousands
of dead Chinese murdered by Shang and his operatives.
Meanwhile, Qin Shang has bought off all of the politicians,
including the president. As Dirk continues to nose around,
it turns out that the evil billionaire is constructing his biggest
operation yet. He has constructed a billion dollar port above
New Orleans that defies all economic logic. Aside from using
the port as an entry point for smuggling operations, Shang
has a plan that will divert the Mississippi back into her former
bed. This nefarious plan would then give his new port a
monopoly, and put everyone else under water -- literally!
Pitt and his gang from the National Underwater and Marine Agency (NUMA) unravel Qin Shang's plans bit by bit using remote submersibles and other fun high-tech gadgetry. The final showdown between Pitt and the evil billionaire takes him to the site of a shipwreck that was filled with treasures by Chiang Kai Shek and possibly containing the bones of the Peking Man. A speedy and fun adventure which Cussler fans will relish. --James A. White, Jr. Mystery Reviews Page Two | Page Three Return to Book Reviews Index ** To visit the archives of mystery books reviewed in The IWJ, please click here. |