In bestseller Cussler's gripping 18th NUMA Files novel (after 2020's Journey of the Pharaohs, also with Brown), climate expert Cora Emmerson, while doing research in Berlin, comes across references to a 1939 German expedition to Antarctica that discovered a lake heated by geothermal energy containing a strange green algae that seemed to cause water to rapidly freeze. Cora goes to Antarctica, where she collects ice core samples containing the algae. She alerts the National Underwater and Marine Agency, for which she once worked, that she has made a find that has the power to "remake the world." Weeks later, as Cora heads home, a vessel disguised as an iceberg crashes into her ship. Unknown attackers kill the crew and steal Cora's samples. Cora survives to join the subsequent investigation by NUMA's Kurt Austin and sidekick Joe Zavela, which leads them to Ryland Lloyd, an environmentalist who believes climate change actually benefits the planet in the long run. No surprise, Lloyd turns out to have a hidden agenda related to the ice. The suspense builds as the NUMA team races to avert global catastrophe. This is another classic Cussler action thriller. Agent: Peter Lampack, Peter Lampack Agency. (Mar.)

Kurt Austin and his team battle a ruthless billionaire who made a terrifying scientific discovery in the latest "NUMA Files" title (after Journey of the Pharaohs). Antarctic research has uncovered an algae that will initiate a global ice age if allowed to run rampant in normal ocean waters. A former NUMA (National Underwater and Marine Agency) scientist disappears along with the vessel she was on, so Kurt and his assistant, Joe Zavala, head to the South Pole to find her. Simultaneously, allies travel to a research center to investigate the samples that initiated the expedition. Everywhere they go they find resistance and violence. The villain's plot is daunting, and NUMA has no chance of success--in other words, a typical day for Kurt Austin. VERDICT The pace never slows, and the villains are extra nasty in this entry that delivers what readers expect when they see Cussler's name on the cover. Cussler, who died in 2020, and frequent cowriter Brown convey marine biology's complexities in a way that makes it believable and understandable. Grab a comfy chair and plan to read all night.--Jeff Ayers, formerly with Seattle P.L.