2005: #23 – Blue Gold (Clive Cussler & Paul Kemprecos)

Blue Gold by Clive Cussler, Paul Kemprecos
Series: NUMA Files #02
Published by Pocket Books on May 25th 2010
Genres: adventure thriller
Pages: 452


Also by this author: Cyclops

From deep within the Venezuelan rain forest emanates the legend of a white goddess and a mysterious tribe with startling technical accomplishments. Few believe the tribe exists - and even fewer suspect its deity may hold knowledge that can change the course of history.
 
For National Underwater & Marine Agency crew leader Kurt Austin, an investigation into the sudden deaths of rare whales leads him to the Mexican coast, where someone tries to put him and his mini-sub permanently out of commission. Meanwhile, in South America's lush hills, a specially assigned NUMA crew turns up the white-goddess legend and a murderous cadre of bio-pirates intent on stealing medicinal secrets worth millions. Soon Austin and his crew realize they're working the opposite ends of the same grand scheme. A billionaire California tycoon is posed to rise to power by monopolizing the earth's vastly depleted freshwater reserves and ultimately dominate the world.
 
Austin has a hunch Venezuela's mythical tribal goddess has some real roots in science, and may be the key to locating a secret formula that could turn vast amounts of seawater into fresh. But with each step into the bush, he and his NUMA team feel like fish out of water - and must fight a deadly, twisting trail of enemies through a dense jungle of treachery, blackmail and murder.

Book #23 was Blue Gold, by Clive Cussler. Instead of the usual Cussler protagonist, Dirk Pitt, this book is the second in a series focusing on a new hero, Kurt Austin.

These are fun books for me to read. Very James Bond-ish. Except Kurt Austin is less of a devil with the ladies than good ol’ Dirk Pitt. At least there’s something different about their characters. Regardless, I like Cussler’s stories, no matter how outlandish and silly they are.

Book count: 23/50 — 46%
Pages in book: 416
Page count: 7,131/15,000 — 47.54%