SACRED STONE

The multitudes of fans awaiting each new work the Mighty Cussler Factory pumps out must wonder which Cussler they’ll get next.

Will it be Cussler with poetic coauthor Paul Kemprecos (Serpent, 1999), filing a Dirk Pitt and NUMA thriller; Cussler with Craig Dirgo (Golden Buddha, 2003), filing an Oregon report for Corporation chairman Juan Cabrillo; or Cussler the Pure Thing (Trojan Odyssey, 2003), with his historical fantasias? Here, a radioactive meteorite that struck Earth 50,000 years ago was discovered in Greenland a mere thousand years ago by Eric the Red and his Vikings, who hid it in a cave. Now two rival factions want the meteorite to help build a superbomb that can wipe out a Western city. The first is a faction of Muslim terrorists from Ukraine, while the second faction, led by a crazed industrialist, wants to wipe out Islam. Only genius Juan Cabrillo’s Corporation, with its marvel of seagoing technology, bristling with armaments and assisted by the CIA, can save the West as well as save the East from the West. But the meteorite is not the only rock in the tale, since the stolen Abraham’s Stone (and what stone could be more sacred?) must also be secretly returned to the Kaaba at Mecca—while the good guys are threatened with beheading.

The usual Cussler the Incredible, crammed with endless technological detail and ablaze with action.