Clive Cussler's third installment in the NUMA Files series, Fire Ice (written with Paul Kemprecos), is the first to appear in hardcover—an excellent decision by Putnam, as it turns out. The book goes right to the top of our fiction list, with almost 420,000 copies in print. Cussler's last two Dirk Pitt titles also hit the #1 spot the first week out—last August, Valhalla Rising claimed the spot for four weeks and, in December 1999, Atlantis Found was there for one week. The paperbacks of the first two NUMA Files titles—Serpent and Blue Gold— enjoyed double-digit runs. Fire Ice's top landing is especially impressive, considering that Cussler is not doing any promotion. Fans will have to wait until December, when he travels to selected cities to promote his second release of 2002, the nonfiction Sea Hunters II (the bestselling first volume was published in 1996). Putnam is supporting this Kurt Austin adventure with national print and TV ads. Cussler's sales stats are something to brag about: his books—more than 125 million copies—are published in over 40 languages in more than 100 countries.
With reporting by Dick Donahue
