Lost Empire

This is the second installment (after Spartan Gold, 2009) of Cusslers action-packed new series featuring husband-and-wife treasure-hunters Sam and Remi Fargo, a spunky Nick and Nora for the twenty-first century. Scuba diving off the coast of East Africa, the couple discovers a bell, covered in cryptic carvings, from a long-lost Confederate warship. While they struggle to decode the clues found on the bell, a sinister faction is shadowing them in hopes of also discovering the secret to which the clues lead. Unlike the Fargos, this group does not want the secret uncovered and will kill to keep it hidden, as the discovery would result in a rewrite of the history books. In his inimitable way, Cussler throws everything into the pot: Confederate warships, the Aztecs, the Krakatoa explosion of 1883, pirates, and, in the tradition of Alfred Hitchcock, Cussler himself in a cameo appearance. Blackwood, the coauthor, seems to have brought a breath of fresh air to Cusslers usual testosterone-laced style by toning down the traces of xenophobia and misogyny that often permeate the long-in-the-tooth Dirk Pitt series.