Dark Watch

Cussler's back, this time with coauthor Dubrul. For those readers who are still counting, it's Cussler's twenty-eighth book. This one involves the clandestine spy ship Oregon, whose crew--led by one Juan Cabrillo--work for what Cussler describes as "high-powered Western interests." Cabrillo's newest employers are a consortium of Japanese shipping tycoons who are being threatened by pirates. The plot includes commercial freighters that are disappearing, missiles that North Korea is selling to Syria, bad guys planting a bomb on a ship that the U.S. wants to destroy, the sinking of a research vessel, covert operations from any number of nations, and the threat of diseases such as typhoid and cholera that could run rampant--and that's just the first 100 pages.