After 40 years of nautical derring-do, Dirk Pitt is still going strong, as shown in bestseller Cussler's winning 23rd novel featuring the underwater expert, the sixth coauthored with son Dirk (after 2012's Poseidon's Arrow). In 1898, Ellsworth Boyd, a Yale anthropologist who specializes in native Caribbean cultures, arrives in Cuba with something in a crate that he excavated in Jamaica. Unfortunately, Boyd boards the USS Maine with his prize shortly before the warship explodes and sinks in Havana Harbor. More than a century later, Pitt and his two grown children, Summer and her twin brother, Dirk Jr., seek to retrieve Boyd's mysterious discovery. Subplots aplenty involve venal Cuban politicians, the release of poisonous mercury from the sea bottom, uranium ore going to North Korea, and a fabulous Aztec treasure. Some critics consider Isaac Bell the new go-to Cussler hero, but no one should count out the Pitts and their seagoing gang of adventurers. Agent: Peter Lampack, Peter Lampack Agency. (Nov.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

In a quest connecting Aztecs, the Spanish-American War and boatloads of modern villains, Cussler pater et filius (Poseidon's Arrow, 2012, etc.) chronicle another adventure of the venerable Dirk Pitt, chief of the National Underwater and Marine Agency. Cussler addicts crave action, and the authors deal it out liberally. In the first 200 pages, there's a flashback to the 1898 sinking of the Maine in Havana Harbor; innocent Jamaican fishermen are vaporized; one of Castro's ministers is assassinated; three oil workers are trapped in a deep-water diving bell; an oil exploration ship is sunk; and Dirk and Summer, children of Dirk the elder, confront danger with derring-do in Mexico as they seek clues to an ancient Aztec codex. Cussler's regulars are on hand, including Al Giordino, Dirk's number two, with "the burly build of a professional wrestler combined with the toughness of an elder crocodile." Chief villains are two, both greedy Cuban commies. Gen. Alberto Gutier has political ambitions, and he's charged ruthless Juan Daz with financing those ambitions via rogue deep-sea mining. Daz dupes the CEO of a Canadian mining company, an enlightened, environmentally conscious fellow who's a bad judge of business partners, into providing the high-tech equipment. However, Daz's explorations vent mercury into pristine tropical waters, and that attracts NUMA's attention. Descriptive flourishes, such as "he raised him off the floor and ground his teeth in the man's face," sometimes clank, and there's a plot hole or two as ships sail around the Caribbean setting off explosions that register as seismic events. The other half of the Aztec codexroad map to richesis found after a bit of crafty research, requiring more undersea work, descriptions of which are Cussler's forte. Few read Cussler for literary nuance and protagonists steeped in irony, but Pitt and company are the stuff of heroic dreams: beautiful and high-minded and generous rich folks with cutting-edge technology and ample time to save the world. Another super Cussler fun read fit for a lazy weekend. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

In 1898, in Havana Harbor, someone removes a crate containing a valuable artifact from the deck of the sinking American battleship the USS Maine. In the present day, Dirk Pitt, National Underwater and Marine Agency (NUMA) director and star of Cussler's long-running series of adventure novels, is looking into a series of dead zones, areas where no organic life can survive, in the Caribbean Sea. Meanwhile, Dirk's daughter, Summer, and his son, also named Dirk, are searching for an Aztec artifact that could point the way to an ancient treasure. Their investigation and their father's takes them to Cuba, just as the political upheaval that has spread in the wake of Fidel Castro's death threatens to get seriously bloody. The Pitt series achieved formulaic efficiency many books ago, and new entries keep going by way of accumulated momentum and familiar characters, but at least it's a formula readers can count on to deliver the goods. You know what to expect going into a Dirk Pitt novel, and you're never disappointed.--Pitt, David Copyright 2014 Booklist