Zero Hour

by Clive Cussler, Graham Brown

Overview

Clive Cussler, author of the bestselling Dirk Pitt series, and his co-author, Graham Brown, send hero Kurt Austin into the heart of the storm in the action-packed NUMA Files series.

A new energy source holds the promise to change the world. If it doesn't kill it first.

It's called zero point energy - a state of energy contained in all matter everywhere, and all but unlimited. Nobody has ever found a way to tap into it, however . . . until one scientist does.

The problem is, his machines also cause great earthquakes, even fissures in tectonic plates. One machine is buried deep underground; the other submerged in a vast ocean trench. If Kurt Austin, Joe Zavala and the rest of the NUMA team aren't able to find and destroy them - and soon - the world will be on the threshold of a new era of catastrophe and unchecked volcanism.

Praise for Clive Cussler

'Cussler is hard to beat'
Daily Mail

'Clive Cussler is the guy I read'
Tom Clancy

'The Adventure King'
Daily Express

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781408724101
Publisher:	Little, Brown Book Group
Publication date:	04/10/2025
Series:	NUMA Files Series , #11
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Clive Cussler was the author of more than eighty books in five bestselling series, including Dirk Pitt®, NUMA Files®, Oregon Files®, Isaac Bell®, and Sam and Remi Fargo®. His life nearly paralleled that of his hero Dirk Pitt. Whether searching for lost aircraft or leading expeditions to find famous shipwrecks, he and his NUMA crew of volunteers discovered and surveyed more than seventy-five lost ships of historic significance, including the long-lost Civil War submarine Hunley, which was raised in 2000 with much publicity. Like Pitt, Cussler collected classic automobiles. His collection featured more than one hundred examples of custom coachwork. Cussler passed away in February 2020.
Graham Brown is the author of Black Rain and The Eden Prophecy, and co-author of books in Clive Cussler's bestselling NUMA Files® series. A pilot and an attorney, he lives in Arizona.

Hometown:

Phoenix, Arizona

Date of Birth:

July 15, 1931

Place of Birth:

Aurora, Illinois

Education:

Pasadena City College; Ph.D., Maritime College, State University of New York, 1997

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“Just about the best storyteller in the business.” —New York Post

“Nobody does it better…nobody!” —Stephen Coonts

CLIVE CUSSLER…

“…has no equal.” —Publishers Weekly

ZERO HOUR is…

“A nonstop action thriller.” —The Associated Press

Editorial Reviews

The latest from Cussler (The Storm, 2012, etc.). Cussler stalwart Kurt Austin is attending a Sydney, Australia, symposium when a boring session sends him to the Opera House's steps. He meets cute with a beautiful young theoretical physicist, Hayley Anderson, but before Austin finishes flirting, a boat-helicopter chase rages across the harbor. The boat crashes. Austin spears the helicopter with a burning boat hook. Very Bond initial opening, especially since it develops that the fetching Hayley is enmeshed in spycraft. Papers disappear amid the destruction, and Cecil Bradshaw, of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, arrives on the scene. Austin is dismissed, but he's intrigued. He calls his National Underwater and Marine Agency cohort Joe Zavala. They follow clues to a flooded, toxic Outback pit mine. Hayley's trapped in the pit. Bradshaw's wounded. An ASIO team's dead. With that, Austin and NUMA are drafted to thwart mad genius Maxmillian Thero's attempt to tap into zero-point energy: the physics of "drawing energy from background fields that are supposedly all around us." It's Tesla's Dynamic Theory of Gravity, once put into practice by a Tesla assistant, only to cause San Francisco's 1906 earthquake. The toxic mine pit was a test site. Heard Island, isolated in the Roaring Forties, is the site of the supergenerator with power sufficient to crack Australia in two. Cussler's usual supertech gadgetry is limited herein, except for a derelict cruise ship converted into a submarine. Russians are involved, and Uncle Sam too, but other nations are oblivious. The action continues post–boat-helicopter shootout with a neutrino wave sinking a NUMA ship, then there's a hovercraft-snowmobile set piece battle and a shootout in the volcanic island's bowels, which, in addition to the Tesla-inspired doomsday generator, holds a diamond mine to finance the experiment. A C-minus effort.

Kirkus Reviews