1996, Egypt. Searching for a treasure on the Nile, DIRK PITT thwarts the attempted assassination of a beautiful U.N. scientist investigating a disease that is driving thousands of North Africans into madness, cannibalism, and death. The suspected cause of the raging epidemic is vast, unprecedented pollution that threatens to extinguish all life in the world's seas. Racing to save the world from environmental catastrophe, Pitt and his team, equipped with an extraordinary, state-of-the-art yacht, run a gauntlet between a billionaire industrialist and a bloodthirsty West African tyrant. In the scorching desert, Pitt finds a gold mine manned by slaves and uncovers the truth behind two enduring mysteries -- the fate of a Civil War ironclad and its secret connection with Lincoln's assassination, and the last flight of a long-lost female pilot....Now, amidst the blazing, shifting sands of the Sahara, DIRK PITT will make a desperate stand -- in a battle the world cannot afford to lose! -- Washington Post Book World "...refreshing escapist entertainment." Stephen Coonts "Don't even peek at SAHARA until you're ready to read every word. America's finest adventure writer, Clive Cussler, has given us the ultimate Dirk Pitt tale, s taut zinger that I couldn't put down." Minneapolis Star Tribune "Clive Cussler is at his absolute, riotous, violent, macho best in SAHARA.... Dirk Pitt is a godsend ... The finale is no less than splendid." Flint Journal "Dirk Pitt is at it again... proving himself indestructible to the bad guys and irresistible to beautiful women -- and irresistible to readers as well!.... Terrifically fun...." United Press International "Clive Cussler gets more wild and mischievous with every new book.... SAHARA is a fast-moving string of adventures with some outrageous side plots.... A tour de force...." Sunday Oklahoman "It's Dirk Pitt at his adventurous best...." Publishers Weekly "Cussler champions ecological issues with verve, and continues his love affair with history.... Great fun... putting Beau Geste swashbucklers against the vilest of villains." Newport News Daily Press "Cussler gives us one of his most consistently enjoyable books in years.... Romance, violence, technology, and history all blend swimmingly into another adventure in which that old lethal smoothy Dirk Pitt can really raise some hell.... Cussler knows how to make action flow." Raleigh News & Observer "SAHARA is a great way to spend an afternoon. Or two. Or three.... A good-time book, a swashbuckling adventure.... You can't help but enjoy it." Clive Cussler is acclaimed worldwide as the Grandmaster of Adventure. He got his start in advertising, first as an award-winning copy writer, and then as creative director for two of the nation's largest agencies. His initial foray into fiction was in 1973, when he wrote his first Dirk Pitt® novel. Since then he has continued to write Dirk Pitt® adventures while living a life that nearly parallels that of his action hero. Like Pitt, Cussler enjoys discovering and collecting things of historical significance. With NUMA (National Underwater & Marine Agency, a non profit group begun by Cussler) he has had an amazing record of finding over 60 shipwrecks, one of which was the long-lost Confederate submarine Hunley. Cussler also has a renowned and extensive classic car collection, which features over 80 examples of custom coachwork. Along with being Chairman of NUMA, he is also a fellow of the Explorers Club (which honored him with the Lowell Thomas Award for outstanding underwater exploration), the Royal Geographical Society and the American Society of Oceanographers. Married to Barbara Knight for 40 years, with three children and two grandchildren, he divides his time between the mountains of Colorado and the deserts of Arizona.