Date first published	9 June 2011
ISBN Number	978-0718-15792-0
Page Count	392 h/b
h/b= hardback : p/b= paperback

Storyline

Sam & Remi Fargo are used to hunting for treasure, but they aren't used to hunting for people - until an investigator friend of theirs goes missing, and they promise to search for him. What they find, however, will be beyond anything they could have imagined.

On a journey that will take them to Tibet, Nepal, China, Venice and Siberia, the Fargoes will find themselves embroiled with black market fossils, an ancient Tibetan kingdom, a lost landmass in the north Sea, stone age ostrich egg shards inscribed in a cryptic language, a pair of battles separated by thousands of miles and hundreds of years.. and a skeleton that could just turn the history of human evolution on its head.

Review

Of the current series of Cussler books, I have felt that the Fargo franchise was possibly shaping up to be the best of them all a next to the Oregon files which after a few early growth pains has matured nicely. The Numa files, has been two close to the original Pitt series, and the Bell series has been a bit patchy, unless you like 'chase' stories. The Fargo's introduced two rounded characters that you cared about. This story though has missed the target by a large margin. So, why?

Firstly the background story of the Chinese airship is up to par - but then gets wasted, as it is basically a method of providing the Fargoes with firewood!

A villain is set up in the shape of Charles King, his children and his wife, but he gets away with it, to be left to some future prosecution by the FBI, what has happened to the good guys carrying out some form of summary justice?

King and his family play a prominent part in the mid section of the story, then disappears for a good chunk apart from a couple of brief telephone conversations. The family do very little apart from a final confusing confrontation in Shang Gri La. The final battle is rather lacklustre, not helped by being fought in some sort of temple which is so poorly described it can't be pictured in your mind.

The finish of the book is also rather abrupt, and you don't get the sense that it has been finished properly. It almost feels like one person has written the first two thirds then some else has come into quickly scribble an ending to meet a deadline. Story, characters and plot go out the window to get the book finished as quickly as possible.

This is a pity, the pre story novella, is up to the usual standard, but it is not properly completed in the present day, what happened to the pilots brother, oh he was killed, and that's it. As I say earlier the story doesn't really feature again, and has little bearing on the main thrust of the story.

The Fargo characters don't really change that much, but then in depth characters have never been a feature of Cussler's novels. The missing friend is found, bundled off to the states, and that's it, leaving the Fargos to carry on the venture on their own. Some of it comes to easily, if the plot gets stuck, refer it to Selma who has it sorted in a jiffy.

So from a strong start, this series has started to slide, and needs a major reboot for the next novel (which at the time of writing is already out), with clearer plotting, better action, and a less hurried finish to the story, and one which makes sense.

So to sum up, could do much better, and the series is now on final warning!

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