Crescent Dawn (Dirk Pitt Series #21)

by Clive Cussler

Overview

An ancient cargo long thought lost is found. With terrible consequences . . .

Dirk Pitt is surveying in the Middle East when a stroke of luck reveals an Ottoman wreck with a very curious cargo. While investigating the find, he foils a night raid on Istanbul's Topkapi Palace Museum. This puts Pitt at the centre of a race to acquire a series of legendary artefacts.

Meanwhile, the region is being pushed to the brink of war by a series of explosions across Turkey and Egypt. Finding that his search for the artefacts is linked to the attacks, Pitt must prevent a deranged brother and sister's fanatical plans succeeding...

Packed with breathtaking suspense and fired by an extraordinary imagination, Crescent Dawn is a barnstorming read starring Dirk Pitt for all fans of action, suspense and intrigue.

Praise for Clive Cussler

'No holds barred adventure ... a souped-up treat'
Daily Mirror

'Frightening and full of suspense ... unquestionably entertaining'
Daily Express

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781408732984
Publisher:	Little, Brown Book Group
Publication date:	07/23/2024
Series:	Dirk Pitt Series , #21
Pages:	560
Sales rank:	768,693
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.75(h) x (d)

About the Author

Clive Cussler was the author of more than eighty books in five bestselling series, including Dirk Pitt®, NUMA Files®, Oregon Files®, Isaac Bell®, and Sam and Remi Fargo®. His life nearly paralleled that of his hero Dirk Pitt. Whether searching for lost aircraft or leading expeditions to find famous shipwrecks, he and his NUMA crew of volunteers discovered and surveyed more than seventy-five lost ships of historic significance, including the long-lost Civil War submarine Hunley, which was raised in 2000 with much publicity. Like Pitt, Cussler collected classic automobiles. His collection featured more than one hundred examples of custom coachwork. Cussler passed away in February 2020.

Hometown:

Phoenix, Arizona

Date of Birth:

July 15, 1931

Place of Birth:

Aurora, Illinois

Education:

Pasadena City College; Ph.D., Maritime College, State University of New York, 1997

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Arctic Drift has exotic locations, ruthless villains, and many narrow escapes and derring-do by Dirk Pitt, oceanography's answer to Indiana Jones. Cussler's fans come for swashbuckling [and] he delivers." -Associated Press

Editorial Reviews

In the bloated fourth Dirk Pitt novel from Cussler and son Dirk (after Arctic Drift), evildoers Ozden Aktan Celik and Ozden's sister, Maria, who are bent on Muslim domination of the Middle East, plot to blow up sacred Muslim sites like Jerusalem's Dome of the Rock and pin the blame on the CIA in particular and the West in general. Dirk, the director of the National Underwater and Marine Agency, and the Celiks are both searching for lost religious artifacts related to Jesus, artifacts whose rediscovery could embarrass certain powerful members of the British establishment. The authors keep the action moving with plenty of wreck diving, running sea battles, and ships laden with explosives. Fans of the indefatigable Pitt will enjoy watching their hero as he joins the battle on land, in the air, and at sea, but others might wish the Cusslers had picked less familiar terrorist targets. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

The action runs nonstop and whambam....And Crescent Dawn has a twist that writers like Tom Clancy have never used.”—St. Louis Post-Dispatch

"Cussler once again blends history, technical knowledge, bombs, bullets, and betrayal into cinematic action."—Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

The Cussler family's latest Dirk Pitt adventure (after Arctic Drift) finds the head of the National Underwater and Marine Agency (NUMA) with his wife on vacation in Turkey. While visiting a friend at a museum, they stumble onto a major theft of priceless Roman artifacts connected to a sunken ship in the Mediterranean. Things turn personal for Pitt when his wife is kidnapped. His children also get caught in the sinister plot to restore the Ottoman Empire when artifacts they uncover in Israel and Turkey lead to a mysterious "manifest." Many people over the centuries have died to protect the sacred items listed in this document, and the Pitts will have to use their skills to stop the fundamentalist threat and survive. VERDICT The adventure thrillers featuring Dirk Pitt have been hit-and-miss since Clive's son took over the franchise, but this new entry defies expectations and is arguably the best of the Dirk Cussler novels. Cussler fans will be thrilled to see their favorite hero back in his prime. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 6/1/10.—Ed.]—Jeff Ayers, Seattle P.L.

Library Journal

Mix terrorists, Roman artifacts, delusions of dynasty and irrefutable physical evidence that Jesus of Nazareth lived, then add water—from the Mediterranean Sea—and you get another aquatic adventure starring Dirk Pitt and his colleagues at NUMA.

This is Cussler's 21st effort with Pitt and the National Underwater and Marine Agency (Arctic Drift, 2008, etc.). While studying algae blooms in the Aegean Sea, the intrepid explorer stumbles upon an Ottoman Empire era shipwreck, among which there are Roman artifacts. Pitt takes his find to his friend Dr. Rey Ruppé at the Istanbul Archeology Museum hoping to discover why a medieval ship would have been carrying Roman-Christian era cargo, and the nonstop action begins. There is a cast of familiar characters, including Al Giordino, Pitt's twin children, Summer and Dirk Jr., all complemented by a crew of memorable villains, including Ozden Celik and his sister, Maria, the last direct descendants of the Ottoman dynasty. That pair is in possession of black-market HMX explosives and are intent on starting a revolution. Readers also meet assorted allied Arab terrorists, traders in purloined antiquities and a too-easily-forgiven rogue archeologist named Ridley Bannister. The 100 chapters sail by rapidly when Cussler brings in the legendary Lord Kitchener, drowned in 1916 when the British warship HMS Hampshire sinks while on a mission to Russia, Helena, the mother Emperor Constantine, a nearly perfectly preserved Roman galley in a cave on Cyprus, and a letter from Jesus to Peter. The complicated plot has the most nefarious villains dead by chapter 84. Dirk Pitt fans will be happy to note the appearance of the obligatory auto, this time a 1948 Model 135 Delahaye convertible coupe with a Henri Chapron coachwork-body.

Cussler, writing with his son, once again blends history, technical knowledge, bombs, bullets and betrayal into cinematic action.

Kirkus Reviews