The Spy (Isaac Bell Series #3) »

Author of the wildly popular seafaring adventure series starring man's men Dirk Pitt and Kurt Austin , former ace advertising exec Clive Cussler is also a sea searcher in real life and has discovered some of history's most famous shipwrecks.

Detective Isaac Bell, hero of The Chase and The Wrecker, returns in the remarkable new adventure from the #1 New York Times-bestselling author.

It is 1908, and international tensions are mounting as the world plunges toward war. When a brilliant American battleship gun designer dies in a sensational apparent suicide, the man's grief-stricken daughter turns to the legendary Van Dorn Detective Agency to clear her father's name. Van Dorn puts his chief investigator on the case, and Isaac Bell soon realizes that the clues point not to suicide but to murder. And when more suspicious deaths follow, it becomes clear that someone-an elusive spy-is orchestrating the destruction of America's brightest technological minds... and the murders all connect to a top- secret project called Hull 44.

But that is just the beginning. As the intrigue deepens, Bell will find himself pitted against German, Japanese, and British spies, in a mission that encompasses dreadnought battleships, Teddy Roosevelt's Great White Fleet, Chinatown, Hell's Kitchen, and the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Isaac Bell has certainly faced perilous situations before, but this time it is more than the future of his country that's at stake- it's the fate of the world.

Publishers Weekly

Set in 1908, bestseller Cussler and Scott's action-packed third adventure featuring Isaac Bell, head operative of the Van Dorn Detective Agency, leaves behind the railroad theme of the first two books (The Chase and The Wrecker), focusing instead on the espionage-riddled world of warship and armament manufacturing in the buildup to WWI. Someone is murdering the leading lights of America's naval research and development. When the indefatigable Bell looks into the supposed suicide of chief gun designer Arthur Langner, he uncovers a succession of possible international suspects, all of whom are attempting to disrupt America's development of a fleet of dreadnought battleships. Bell clashes with old enemies and new until the climactic battle, where he must stop a massive submarine attempting to sink the navy's newest battleship. The expanded area of interest will attract new readers to this exciting series in the Cussler franchise. (June)