Drawing firmly on the pulp tradition but never shying away from the latest and most improbable gadgetry, Gabriel Hunt's third adventure (after 2009's Hunt Through the Cradle of Fear
) proves him a contemporary heir to Indiana Jones, Bruce Wayne and Travis McGee. Kaufmann's storytelling, all action and little introspection, enhances the autobiographical conceit as anthropologist-archeologist Hunt, backed by the fiscal resources of the Hunt Foundation and his brother's extensive research library, travels to Borneo in search of Joyce Wingard, a family friend who disappeared while working on her doctorate and searching for information on an ancient Hittite weapon. Readers willing to suspend disbelief and embrace a touch of the supernatural (not to mention millennia-old death cults whose members engage the protagonists in hand-to-hand combat in the 21st century) will enjoy Hunt's romp across several continents. (Nov.)
