Date first published	7 Jan 2010
ISBN Number	0 718 15530 8
Page Count	416 h/b
h/b= hardback : p/b= paperback

Storyline

Thousands of years ago, the mighty Persian king Xerxes the Great was said to have raided the Treasury at Delphi, carrying away two solid gold pillars as a tribute to his glory.

In 1800, while crossing the Pennine Alps, Napoleon Bonaparte and his army stumble across the pillars. Unable to transport them, Napoleon created an inscrutable map on the labels of twelve bottles of rare wine. When Napoleon dies, the bottles disappear - and the gold pillars are lost once again.

Treasure-hunters Sam and Remi Fargo are exploring the Great Pocomoke Swamp in Delaware when they are shocked to discover a German U-boat. Inside, they find a bottle taken from Napoleon's 'lost cellar'. Fascinated, the Fargos set out to find the rest of the collection. But another connoisseur of sorts has been looking for the bottle they've just found. Not for the wine. He wants what the bottle may lead to. For he is Hadeon Bondaruk - a half-Russian, half-Persian millionaire - and he claims descent from King Xerxes himself. And the treasure will be his, no matter what . . .

Review

With this series we have moved away from any sort of official / unofficial organisation. No NUMA, no government back up to get them out of trouble. We have a pair of philanthropists, exploring the world looking for treasure.

Much of the adventure takes place in and around water, although we don't have huge ships, submarines, just simple scuba gear. Quite a few times Remi and Sam can be simply accused of house breaking. They seem to have a run of luck, and on several occasions it runs out. Rather than getting assistance they are left to rely on their wits to get them out of trouble, and they do get into a lot of trouble!

As with a lot of the Cussler novels the characters are quite thinly sketched. having read the novel I can at this stage picture either Sam or Remi in my own mind. I'm not quite sure of their motivation either, although I think that it is basically down to them being wealthy and bored, and are looking for a bit of excitement.

Whilst not afraid of violence, both try very hard to use non lethal force, although both are forced to do so on occasion.

One thing that i didn't like about the book was the appearance of Cussler, as a minor character. (He is the old man in the beach hut who provides a piece of evidence). This featured in some of the Pitt novels for a while before dying out. Hopefully it won't appear again.

Apart from the minor niggle, it is a good first outing. It may be better than the first Oregon story Golden Buddha, which fell short as it tried to introduce the whole of the crew. This story centres around Sam and Remi, with only one support character. Others are mentioned but get very little look in. Hopefully in the next story we will get some more information.

A good light read, and well worth waiting for the next installment.

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