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Clive Cussler

Biography

Clive Cussler

Clive Cussler is the author or co-author of more than 70 books in five bestselling series, including Dirk Pitt, NUMA FilesOregon Files, Isaac Bell and Sam and Remi Fargo. His nonfiction works include BUILT FOR ADVENTURE: The Classic Automobiles of Clive Cussler and Dirk Pitt, plus THE SEA HUNTERS and THE SEA HUNTERS II. They describe the true adventures of the real NUMA, which, led by Cussler, searches for lost ships of historic significance. With his crew of volunteers, Cussler discovered more than 60 ships, including the long lost Confederate ship Hunley. Cussler passed away on February 24, 2020 at the age of 88.

Clive Cussler

Books by Clive Cussler

by Clive Cussler and Jack Du Brul - Adventure, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Historical Thriller, Suspense, Thriller

Detective Isaac Bell thwarts the assassination of a U.S. Senator shortly after meeting the man. This heroic rescue is just the start of the mystery for Bell, who suspects that the would-be assassins have a much larger and more dangerous agenda --- one involving the nearly constructed Panama Canal. While the senator supports the building of the canal, there are many, including a local Panamanian insurgency known as the Red Vipers, who never want to see its completion. With millions of dollars and the fates of two nations at stake, Bell heads to Panama to find answers. After a deadly bombing at the canal's construction site, he is determined to stop the insurgents --- or whoever is funding them --- before they can attack again.

by Clive Cussler and Graham Brown - Adventure, Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

In the early days of World War II, the infamous German Luftwaffe embarks upon an expedition to Antarctica, hoping to set up a military base to support their goal of world domination. Though the military outpost never comes to fruition, what the Nazis find on the icy continent indeed proves dangerous...and will have implications far into the future. In the present day, Kurt Austin and his assistant, Joe Zavala, embark for the freezing edge of the world after a former NUMA colleague disappears in Antarctica. While there, they discover a photo of the Luftwaffe expedition of 1939, and are drawn into a decades-old conspiracy. Even as they confront perilous waters and frigid temperatures, they also are up against a terrifying man-made weapon --- a fast-growing ice that could usher in a new Ice Age.

by Clive Cussler and Boyd Morrison - Adventure, Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

While interrupting an attack on a Kuwaiti oil tanker, Juan Cabrillo and his team discover something even more dangerous: a ruthless billionaire's dying wish has allowed a paralyzing chemical to end up in the hands of a terrorist group. When an Oregon crew member falls victim to the poison, Juan Cabrillo will stop at nothing to find an antidote before it is too late. He and his team must connect an ancient mystery with a cunning modern enemy in order to save millions of innocent lives, including their own.

by Clive Cussler and Graham Brown - Adventure, Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

In 1074 B.C., vast treasures disappear from the tombs of Egyptian Pharaohs. In 1927, a daredevil American aviator vanishes on an attempted transcontinental flight. And in the present day, a fishing trawler --- along with its mysterious cargo --- sinks off the coast of Scotland. How are these three mysterious events connected? And, more importantly, what do they mean for Kurt Austin and his NUMA team? As they search for answers, the NUMA squad join the agents of the British MI5 to take on a wide-reaching international conspiracy. Their common enemy is the Bloodstone Group, a conglomerate of arms dealers and thieves attempting to steal ancient relics on both sides of the Atlantic.

by Clive Cussler and Boyd Morrison - Adventure, Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

When the CIA realizes that the identities of three American spies in Brazil have been compromised, they turn to Juan Cabrillo and the crew of the Oregon to rescue the agents. What seems like a routine operation turns out to be a trap designed by Cabrillo's greatest enemy, a man driven by hate to seek the ultimate revenge. At the heart of the plot is a state-of-the-art ship that is identical to the Oregon: same weaponry, same technology, same ability to evade capture. The crew of the Oregon must piece together a series of disturbing events, including the mysterious sinking of a nuclear attack submarine and the possible discovery of a WWII-era weapon that was thought to be lost in the jungles of Brazil, in the ultimate game of cat and mouse.

by Clive Cussler and Jack Du Brul - Adventure, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Historical Thriller, Suspense, Thriller

A century apart, NUMA Director Dirk Pitt and detective Isaac Bell team up to unlock the truth about the most famous maritime disaster of all time. In the present day, Pitt makes a daring rescue from inside an antiquated submersible in the waters off New York City. His reward afterwards is a document left behind a century earlier by legendary detective Isaac Bell --- a document that re-opens a historical mystery. In 1911, in Colorado, Isaac Bell is asked to look into an unexplained tragedy at Little Angel Mine, in which nine people died. His dangerous quest to answer the riddle leads to a larger puzzle centered on byzanium, a rare element with extraordinary powers and of virtually incalculable value.

by Clive Cussler and Robin Burcell - Adventure, Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

Ten years ago, a chance meeting at the Lighthouse Café in Redondo Beach led Sam Fargo and Remi Longstreet on the adventure of a lifetime, hunting the legendary riches stolen from the Persian King Croesus in 546 B.C. But someone else is after the gold and is willing to kill anyone who gets in his way. When Sam and Remi run afoul of a criminal drug-running operation, their hopes of finding the treasure are dashed. Years later they return to Greece on a mission to locate the cache of gold. Time becomes their enemy when the kingpin they helped send to prison over a decade ago is released --- and he has two goals in mind. Find the legendary hoard of King Croesus, and kill Sam and Remi Fargo.

by Clive Cussler and Robin Burcell - Adventure, Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

In 533 A.D., the last Vandal ruler in North Africa consults an oracle on how to defeat the invading Byzantine army. The oracle tells the king that a high priestess cast a curse upon the Vandal Kingdom after a sacred scroll was stolen. In order to lift the curse, the scroll must be returned to its rightful home. But the kingdom falls before the scroll is found, leaving its location a great mystery…until a current-day archaeological dig, funded by Sam and Remi Fargo, uncovers some vital clues. The search for the ancient scroll is put on hold when the Fargos learn that a shipment of supplies intended for their charitable foundation's school has been stolen, and they travel to Nigeria to deliver new supplies themselves. But their mission becomes infinitely more complicated when they run afoul of a band of robbers.

by Clive Cussler and Dirk Cussler - Adventure, Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

The murders of a team of United Nations scientists in El Salvador. A deadly collision in the waterways off the city of Detroit. An attack by tomb raiders on an archaeological site along the banks of the Nile. Is there a link between these violent events? The answer may lie in the tale of an Egyptian princess forced to flee the armies of her father 3,000 years ago. During what was supposed to be a routine investigation in South America, NUMA Director Dirk Pitt finds himself embroiled in an international mystery, one that will lead him across the world and will threaten everyone and everything he knows --- most importantly, his own family.

by Clive Cussler and Graham Brown - Adventure, Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

After an explosion in the Gulf of Mexico destroys three oil rigs, Kurt Austin and the NUMA Special Projects Team are tapped by the President of the United States to find out what's gone wrong. The trail leads them to a brilliant billionaire whose goal is the end of the oil age; her company has spent billions developing the world’s most advanced fuel-cell systems. The NUMA crew discovers that the oil fields are infected with bacteria that are consuming the oil before it can be pumped out of the earth --- a bacteria originally lost decades ago when two submarines vanished in the Mediterranean. With hired killers on his trail, can Kurt Austin locate a submarine that's remained hidden for more than 50 years?

by Clive Cussler and Boyd Morrison - Adventure, Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

Nearly 2,000 years ago, an Eastern emperor charged a small group with safeguarding secrets powerful enough to change the history of mankind. They went down in legend as the Nine Unknown Men --- and now two rival factions of their descendants are fighting a mighty battle. Both sides think they are saving the world, but their tactics could very well bring about the end of humankind. Soon, Juan Cabrillo and his team of expert operatives aboard the Oregon find themselves trapped between two power-hungry adversaries, both of whom are willing to use shocking means to accomplish their goals.

by Clive Cussler and Robin Burcell - Adventure, Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

In 1906, a groundbreaking Rolls-Royce prototype known as the Gray Ghost vanishes from the streets of Manchester, England, and it is only the lucky intervention of an American detective named Isaac Bell that prevents it from being lost forever. However, not even he can save the good name of Marcus Peyton, the man wrongly blamed for the theft. More than a hundred years later, it is his grandson who turns to Sam and Remi Fargo to help prove his grandfather's innocence. But there is even more at stake than any of them know. For the car has vanished again, and in it is an object so rare that it has the capacity to change lives.

by Clive Cussler and Graham Brown - Adventure, Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

An alarming rise in the world's sea levels sends Kurt Austin, Joe Zavala and the rest of the NUMA scientific team rocketing around the globe in search of answers. What they find at the bottom of the East China Sea, however, is even worse than they imagined: a diabolical plan to upset the Pacific balance of power --- and in the process displace as many as a billion people. A rare alloy unlike anything else on earth, a pair of 500-year-old Japanese talismans, an assassin so violent even the Yakuza has disowned him, an audacious technological breakthrough that will become a very personal nightmare for Kurt Austin --- the NUMA team must risk everything to head off the coming catastrophe.

by Clive Cussler and Boyd Morrison - Adventure, Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

Hired to search for a collection of paintings worth half a billion dollars, Juan Cabrillo and the crew of the Oregon soon find themselves in much deeper waters. The vicious leader of a Filipino insurgency is not only using them to finance his attacks, he has stumbled upon one of the most lethal secrets of World War II: a Japanese-developed drug, designed, but never used, to turn soldiers into super-warriors. To stop him, the Oregon must take on not only the rebel commander, but also a South African mercenary intent on getting his own hands on the drug, a massive swarm of torpedo drones targeting the U.S. Navy, an approaching megastorm --- and, just possibly, a war that could envelop the entire Asian continent.

by Clive Cussler and Robin Burcell - Adventure, Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

In 1918, a ransom of enormous size was paid to free the Romanovs from the Bolsheviks. But the Romanovs died anyway. And the ransom? During World War II, the Nazis stole it from the Russians, and after that, it vanished. Until now. When a modern-day kidnapping captures the attention of husband-and-wife team Sam and Remi Fargo, the couple soon learn that these long-lost riches may be back in play, held in trust by the descendants of a Nazi guerrilla faction called the Werewolves. It is their mission to establish the Fourth Reich, and their time is coming soon. This quest is greater than anything the Fargos have ever done; it is their chance to make someone answer for unspeakable crimes, and to prevent them from happening again.

by Clive Cussler and Graham Brown - Adventure, Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

When the most advanced aircraft ever designed vanishes over the South Pacific, Kurt Austin and Joe Zavala are drawn into a deadly contest to locate the fallen machine. But they know what others don’t --- that the X-37 is carrying a dangerous secret, a payload of exotic matter, extracted from the upper reaches of the atmosphere and stored at a temperature near absolute zero. As long as it remains frozen, the cargo is inert, but if it thaws, it will unleash a catastrophe of nearly unthinkable proportions. The entire NUMA team will risk everything in an effort to avert disaster…but they may be caught in a race that no one can win.

by Clive Cussler and Justin Scott - Adventure, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Historical Thriller, Suspense, Thriller

Chief Investigator Isaac Bell of the Van Dorn Detective Agency has had many extraordinary cases before, but none quite like this. Hired to find a young woman named Anna Pape who ran away from home to become an actress, Bell gets a shock when her murdered body turns up instead. Vowing to bring the killer to justice, he begins a manhunt that leads him into increasingly more alarming territory. Petite young blond women like Anna are being murdered in cities across America, and the pattern goes beyond the physical resemblance of the victims. There are disturbing familiarities about the killings themselves that send a chill through even a man as experienced with evil as Bell.

by Clive Cussler and Dirk Cussler - Adventure, Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

Dirk Pitt, the director of the National Underwater and Marine Agency, is on the Black Sea, helping to locate a lost Ottoman shipwreck, when he responds to an urgent Mayday from a nearby freighter. But when he and his colleague Al Giordino arrive, there is nobody there --- just dead bodies and a smell of sulfur in the air. The more the two of them search for the secret of the death ship, the deeper they descend into an extraordinary series of discoveries. Meanwhile, Pitt’s two children, marine engineer Dirk and oceanographer Summer, are exploring a mysterious shipwreck of their own, when they are catapulted into his orbit. The three of them are used to perilous situations --- but this time, they may have found their match.

by Clive Cussler and Robin Burcell - Adventure, Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

When husband and wife treasure hunters Sam and Remi Fargo try something new, a relaxing vacation, a detour to visit a rare bookstore leads to the discovery of a dead body. All signs point to a book in the store that may contain a secret map, an actual, ink-on-paper guide to a historic fortune. The Fargos take up the challenge and find themselves flying from California to Arizona, from Jamaica to England. Racing against a vicious corporate raider with an unhealthy obsession for this particular treasure, Sam and Remi are slowed by a new betrayal at every turn. It can only mean one thing: someone on their team cannot be trusted.

by Clive Cussler and Boyd Morrison - Adventure, Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

Juan Cabrillo and the crew of the Oregon face their toughest challenge yet when a violent bank heist during the Monaco Grand Prix decimates the Corporation’s accounts. To get the money back, Juan joins forces with an old friend from his days in the CIA so they can track down a rogue hacker and a ruthless former Ukrainian naval officer. It is only after the hunt begins that the enormity of the plan comes into focus: the bank theft is just the first step in a plot that will result in the deaths of millions and bring the world’s economies to a standstill. The catalyst for the scheme? A stunning document stolen during Napoleon’s disastrous invasion of Russia.

by Clive Cussler and Justin Scott - Adventure, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Historical Thriller, Suspense, Thriller

It is 1906, and in New York City, the Italian crime group known as the Black Hand is on a spree: kidnapping, extortion, arson. Detective Isaac Bell of the Van Dorn Agency is hired to form a special “Black Hand Squad,” but the gangsters appear to be everywhere --- so much so that Bell begins to wonder if there are imitators, criminals using the name for the terror effect. And then the murders begin, each one of a man more powerful than the last. As Bell discovers, to his dismay, the ultimate target may be the most powerful man of all.

by Clive Cussler and Graham Brown - Adventure, Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

Kurt and Joe tangle with the most determined enemy they’ve ever encountered when a ruthless powerbroker schemes to build a new Egyptian empire as glorious as those of the Pharaohs. A devastating weapon at his disposal may threaten the entire world: a plant extract known as the black mist, rumored to have the power to take life from the living and restore it to the dead. Kurt, Joe and the rest of the NUMA team will have to fight to discover the truth behind the legends. But to do that, they have to confront in person the greatest legend of them all: Osiris, the ruler of the Egyptian underworld.

by Clive Cussler and Russell Blake - Adventure, Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

There are many rumors about the bay off Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands. Some say it was the site of the lost empire of the Solomon king and that great treasure lies beneath the waters. Others say terrible things happened here, atrocities and disappearances at the hands of cannibal giants, and those who venture there do not return. It is cursed. Which is exactly what attracts the attention of husband-and-wife treasure-hunting team Sam and Remi Fargo. What they find at the end of the trail is both wonderful and monstrous --- and like nothing they have ever seen before.

by Clive Cussler and Boyd Morrison - Adventure, Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

In 1902, the volcano Mt. Pelée erupts on the island of Martinique, wiping out an entire city --- and sinking a ship carrying a German scientist on the verge of an astonishing breakthrough. More than a century later, during a covert operation, Juan Cabrillo and the crew meticulously fake the sinking of the Oregon. But when an unknown adversary tracks them down despite their planning and attempts to assassinate them, Cabrillo and his team struggle to fight back against an enemy who seems to be able to anticipate their every move.

by Clive Cussler and Justin Scott - Adventure, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Historical Thriller, Suspense, Thriller

Van Dorn private detective Isaac Bell is investigating John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil monopoly, when a sniper begins murdering opponents of Standard Oil, and it doesn’t stop there. The murders --- shootings, poisonings, staged accidents --- have just begun as Bell tracks his phantom-like criminal adversary across the U.S., to Russia’s war-torn Baku oil fields on the Caspian Sea, and back to America for a final, desperate confrontation. And this one will be the most explosive of all.

by Clive Cussler and Dirk Cussler - Adventure, Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

While investigating a toxic outbreak in the Caribbean Sea that may ultimately threaten the United States, Dick Pitt unwittingly becomes involved in something even more dangerous --- a post-Castro power struggle for the control of Cuba. Meanwhile, Pitt’s children, marine engineer Dirk and oceanographer Summer, are on an investigation of their own, which brings them both to Cuba as well --- and squarely into harm’s way.

by Clive Cussler and Russell Blake - Adventure, Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

Husband-and-wife team Sami and Remi Fargo are on a climate-control expedition in the Arctic when they discover a Viking ship in the ice filled with pre–Columbian artifacts from Mexico. As they plunge into their research, tantalizing clues about a link between the Vikings and the legendary Toltec feathered serpent god Quetzalcoatl --- and a fabled object known as the Eye of Heaven --- begin to emerge. But so do many dangerous people.

by Clive Cussler and Graham Brown - Adventure, Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

When Kurt Austin is injured attempting to rescue the passengers and crew from a sinking yacht, he wakes with fragmented and conflicted memories. Determined to know the truth, he begins to search for answers, and soon finds himself descending into a shadowy world of state-sponsored cybercrime and uncovering a pattern of vanishing scientists, suspicious accidents, and a web of human trafficking.

by Clive Cussler and Justin Scott - Adventure, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Historical Thriller, Suspense, Thriller

When Isaac Bell’s boss and lifelong friend, Joseph Van Dorn, is shot and nearly killed leading the high-speed chase of a rum-running vessel, Bell swears to him that he will hunt down the lawbreakers. When a witness to Van Dorn’s shooting is executed in a ruthlessly efficient manner invented by the Russian secret police, it becomes clear that these are no ordinary criminals. Bell is up against a team of Bolshevik assassins and saboteurs intent on overthrowing the U.S. government of the United States.

by Clive Cussler with Jack Du Brul - Adventure, Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

In October 1943, a U.S. destroyer sailed out of Philadelphia and supposedly vanished, the result of a Navy experiment with electromagnetic radiation. The story was considered a hoax --- but now Juan Cabrillo and his Oregon colleagues aren’t so sure. As Cabrillo races to find the truth, he discovers there is even more at stake than he could have imagined. But by the time he realizes it, he already may be too late.

by Clive Cussler and Thomas Perry - Adventure, Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

Husband-and-wife team Sam and Remi Fargo are in Mexico, when they come upon a remarkable discovery --- the skeleton of a man clutching an ancient sealed pot, and within the pot, a Mayan book, larger than anyone has ever seen. The book contains astonishing information about the Mayans, their cities, and mankind itself. The secrets are so powerful that some people would do anything to possess them --- as the Fargos are about to find out.

by Clive Cussler and Graham Brown - Adventure, Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

Zero point energy is a state of energy contained in all matter everywhere. Nobody has ever found a way to tap into it --- until one scientist thinks he discovers a way. The problem is, his machines also cause great earthquakes, even fissures in tectonic plates. One machine is buried deep underground; the other is submerged in a vast ocean trench. If Kurt Austin, Joe Zavala and the rest of the NUMA team aren’t able to find and destroy them, the world will be on the threshold of a new era of earth tremors and unchecked volcanism.

by Clive Cussler and Justin Scott - Adventure, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Historical Thriller, Suspense, Thriller

It is 1902, and a bright, inexperienced young man named Isaac Bell has an urgent message for his boss. Hired to hunt for radical unionist saboteurs in the coal mines, he is witness to a terrible accident that makes him think that something else is going on. Given exactly one week to prove his case, Bell quickly finds himself pitted against two of the most ruthless opponents he has ever known.

by Clive Cussler and Dirk Cussler - Adventure, Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

It’s the greatest advance in American defense technology in decades --- an attack submarine capable of incredible underwater speeds. However, a key element of the prototype is missing, and the man who developed it is dead. At the same time, ships have started vanishing mid-ocean, usually never to be found again, but when they are, sometimes burned bodies are found aboard. It is up to NUMA director Dirk Pitt and his team to go on a desperate international chase to find the truth.

by Clive Cussler and Thomas Perry - Adventure, Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

Husband-and-wife Sam and Remi Fargo and their friend hunt for Attila the Hun's tomb, which supposedly contained a vast amount of treasure. They follow a trail that leads them across the eastern hemisphere and pits them against others who are hungry for the Attila's treasure.

by Clive Cussler and Graham Brown - Fiction, Thriller

In the middle of the Indian Ocean, a NUMA research vessel is taking water samples at sunset, when a swarm of black particles suddenly attacks the ship, killing everyone aboard. A few hours later, Kurt Austin and Joe Zavala are on their way to the Indian Ocean. What they will find there on the smoldering hulk of the ship will eventually lead them to the discovery of the most audacious scheme they have ever known.

by Clive Cussler and Justin Scott - Adventure, Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

On the ocean liner Mauretania, two European scientists with a dramatic new invention are barely rescued from abduction by the Van Dorn Detective Agency's intrepid chief investigator, Isaac Bell. Unfortunately, they are not so lucky the second time. What are they holding that is so precious? Only something that will revolutionize business and popular culture --- and perhaps something more.

by Clive Cussler and Graham Brown - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

When two ships burst into flames in the same location, Kurt Austin and the rest of the NUMA Special Assignments Team rush to the eastern Atlantic region to investigate --- and find themselves drawn into an African dictator’s complex plot to extort the world’s major nations.

by Clive Cussler and Justin Scott - Fiction, Thriller

It is 1910, and newspaper publisher Preston Whiteway is offering $50,000 for the first daring aviator to cross America in less than 50 days. He is even sponsoring one of the prime candidates --- an intrepid woman named Josephine Frost --- and that's where Detective Isaac Bell, chief investigator for the Van Dorn Detective Agency, comes in. 

Clive Cussler with Grant Blackwood - Fiction, Thriller

Sam and Remi Fargo are used to hunting for treasure, but they find themselves hunting for people when an investigator friend of theirs is deemed missing.

Clive Cussler with Jack Du Brul - Fiction, Thriller

Jungles come in many forms. There are the steamy rain forests of the Burmese highlands. There are the lies and betrayals of the world of covert operations. And there are the dark and twisted thoughts of a man bent on near-global domination. To pull off their latest mission, Juan Cabrillo and the crew of the Oregon must survive them all.

by Clive Cussler and Dirk Cussler - Fiction, Thriller

 

In the fourth Dirk Pitt novel from Cussler and son Dirk, evildoers Ozden Aktan Celik and his sister, Maria, who are bent on Muslim domination of the Middle East, plot to blow up sacred Muslim sites and pin the blame on the West.