The Navigator (NUMA Files)

The Navigator (NUMA Files)
Years ago, an ancient Phoenician statue known as the Navigator was stolen from the Baghdad Museum, and there are men who would do anything to get their hands on it. Their first victim is a crooked antiquities dealer, murdered in cold blood. Their second very nearly is a UN investigator who, were it not for the timely assistance of Austin and Zavala, would now be at the bottom of a watery grave.

What's so special about this statue? Austin wonders. The search for answers will take the NUMA team on an astonishing odyssey through time and space, one that encompasses no less than the lost treasures of King Solomon, a mysterious packet of documents personally encoded by Thomas Jefferson, and a top secret scientific project that could change the world forever.

And that's before the surprises really begin . . .

Rich with all the hair-raising action and endless invention that have become Cussler's hallmarks, The Navigator is Clive's best yet.

Customer Review: Pure Dross Instead of Escapist Fun

Years ago, I came to the conclusion that Clive Cussler had a totally tin ear, wrote the worst love scenes in the world, and wasn't so great at "page turning suspense" either but...I read The Navigator after I realized he had obtained a ghost writer.



The ghost can't write even worse than Cussler can't write. This particular plot, revolving around Phoenecians in Harrisburg, PA (yes, you read that right) failed to suspend disbelief. Forget the characters. They were so muscular, gorgeous, and wooden that they made the plot seem believable in comparison. See, it goes like this: the Queen of Sheba's descendant beds down with the NUMA operative in between her various kidnappings (the lady gets hit over the head more often than Wiley Coyote) by another of King Solomon's spawn and---



There was one odd thing about this amazingly bad book: Cussler, having managed to have Phoenecians hand-carry golden plates on which are supposedly written the supposed ten commandments all the way into the Endless Mountains of northeastern Pennsylvania, totally misses a trick. At this point, our ancient mariners aren't far from Hill Cumora. Since Cussler was already accounting for the first landing in the New World, solving the puzzles of Phoenecian navigation, addressing the importance of the Queen of Sheba, locating King Solomon's Mines, and solving the mystery of the disappearance of the Ark of the Covenant, why didn't his Phoenicians cross into upstate New York and bury the plates near the home of Joseph Smith?