Adult

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.

Ninety-one-year-old Ptolemy has sunk into a lonely dementia. But when a doctor offers him a new drug that guarantees he won’t live to see 92, but that he’ll spend his last days in total mental clarity, Ptolemy discovers a shocking and unexpected past.

There is a castle in THE DISTANT HOURS, and a moat, not to mention a deep forest; there is a trio of slightly batty, secretive sisters; there is a likable protagonist --- an editor, passionate about reading --- who goes sleuthing where she shouldn’t; and there is one particularly crucial dark and stormy night. There is romance, too, but most of the love affairs lie in the past and are forbidden and/or thwarted.