I zoomed through this ninth Dirk Pitt book, not because I was so enthralled, but because I had a lot of travel time on my hands. This is the first “Dirk Pitt Adventure” (at least in a while) where an evil family has invested decades and fortunes into a corrupt plot to take over the planet. As such, its unbelievable plot made the story more of a drudgery to wade through than an action-packed joy to read.

I took no notes on this book, but my recollection of the tale’s lunacy is clear enough. Two brothers (and their necessary assassin partners) seek to hoodwink two entirely separate nations into believing that they are religious reincarnations of the expected Messiah. One is an ancient Aztec King reborn in Mexico and already overthrowing the government there; the other is the Mahdi of Islam, convincing many Muslim-majority nations (especially Egypt) that the golden age of Allah’s reign on earth has arrived. Interestingly enough, neither man follows his chosen religion and, behind closed doors, they each prove as godless as the next conman. Into this mix comes Egypt’s Prime Minister, kidnapped before she can announce the discovery of the ancient Alexandrian Library in, of all places, Mexico.

I love Dirk Pitt and his ability to poke his nose into mysteries covering many historical points and adventures occurring in many nations across the globe. What I don’t like, however, is how these mysteries are so perfectly encapsulated and circumstantial that they have virtually no tie to his previous books. Granted, this is a series of super-fiction and I can’t expect much, but the irony of the two random Mexico-Egypt connections (the brothers and the Library) is too much to accept, especially since the library had never been on the brothers’ radar before. Had they anticipated the discovery of the library or had they even known it existed and might have been somewhere in North-to-Central America, I could accept the relationship. But as the story goes, I can’t buy it.

Both Lauren Smith and Senator Pitt play larger roles in this novel, which is good to see, but their presence doesn’t redeem the book. While it started with an exciting discovery beneath the tundra of Greenland, Cussler‘s story fell flat with its ridiculous twists and turns.

©2017 E.T.

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