Mirage

September 30, 2013
In this rousing ninth Oregon Files adventure (after 2011’s The Jungle) from bestseller Cussler and Du Brul, series hero Juan Cabrillo’s attempt to rescue old pal Yuri Borodin from a super-max Siberian prison goes bad. Yuri dies after uttering “Tesla,” a reference to Nikola Tesla, the mysterious Serb who invented alternating-current electricity and who is alleged to have developed a number of secret weapons, including a death ray, an earthquake machine, and an invisibility field. Russian fleet admiral Pytor Kenin, “perhaps the second-most corrupt man on the planet,” has formed a private army and is using Tesla’s secret technology for nefarious purposes. A subplot involves an effort to secure a legendary shipping container with a billion dollars leftover from the second invasion of Iraq, but soon everyone is back to the main mission—trying to thwart Kenin. The conclusion is the usual Cussler nail-biter, though no one ever really expects Juan and his crew to come in second-best. Agent: Peter Lampack, Peter Lampack Agency.