The Storm

Global climate change poses a threat in bestseller Cussler’s exciting 10th thriller featuring Kurt Austin and the gang from the National Underwater and Marine Agency (after 2011’s Devil’s Gate, also coauthored with Brown). When everyone aboard a NUMA research vessel dies after their catamaran runs into a mysterious black oily substance in the Indian Ocean, where they were investigating water temperature anomalies, Kurt and partner Joe Zavala rush to find out what happened. Wealthy Yemeni Jinn al-Khaif, who’s behind the killings, has dumped billions of microbots into the sea to cool it and create weather patterns that will deliver rain to certain areas and prevent rain from falling in others. Jinn plans to become even richer by selling these weather patterns to governments. Kurt and Joe are out to stop him, and, as always, the fate of the world rests in their hands. A clever twist at the end shows Cussler still plotting at the top of his game. Agent: Peter Lampack, the Peter Lampack Agency. (June)