From an extraordinary discovery in a remote desert oasis to a desperate race against time in the ocean depths, a team of adventurers is about to find the truth behind the most baffling legend in history. The hunt is on for…

Marine archaeologist Jack Howard has stumbled upon the keys to an ancient puzzle. With a crack team of scientific experts and ex–Special Forces commandos, he is heading for what he believes could be the greatest archaeological find of all time—the site of fabled Atlantis—while a ruthless adversary watches his every move and prepares to strike.

But neither of them could have imagined what awaits them in the murky depths. Not only a shocking truth about a lost world, but an explosive secret that could have devastating consequences today. Jack is determined to stop the legacy of Atlantis from falling into the wrong hands, whatever the cost. But first he must do battle to prevent a global catastrophe.

Marine archeologist Jack Howard may have found the key to uncovering Atlantis, the legendary sunken city purportedly built by a flourishing culture. A scrap of papyrus discovered in an Egyptian desert, which may contain a secondhand account of the lost city, sends Jack scrambling to assemble a team, including Costas, an MIT- and Stanford-trained expert in "submersible technology" and Katya, a beautiful Russian Atlantis specialist. Once prepped and in position in the Aegean Sea, Jack and company find themselves caught up with Kazakhstan terrorists and a multicountry fight over a missing Soviet nuclear submarine-and that's before they've uncovered the ancient secrets of the lost city. It's thrilling stuff for sure, but the story limps along on complicated, exposition-heavy science that's doled out much too slowly (characters walk each other-often and at length-through their particular areas of expertise as the plot requires). Gibbons, an underwater archeologist and Cambridge University Ph.D., knows his science; still, things don't pick up until the second half of the story, when the dive gives way to a more straightforward kidnapping plot. The historical conspiracy angle gives the book Da Vinci-esque appeal, and the intense visual details of the team's marine discoveries make it naturally cinematic, but if history and science lectures aren't your cup of Dramamine, you might want to give this one a pass. (Oct.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

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