Typhoon Fury

September 25, 2017
Bestseller Cussler’s fast-paced 12th Oregon Files novel (after 2016’s The Emperor’s Revenge, also coauthored with Morrison) opens in the midst of the second battle of Corregidor in 1945. During a U.S. attack on one of the mountainous island’s many caves, Capt. John Hayward, who’s searching for a secret Japanese laboratory, observes that the enemy soldiers who pour out of the cave’s tunnels are furious fighters who don’t drop even when grievously wounded by gunfire. After finding the secret lab, Hayward succeeds in grabbing a file marked Project Typhoon just before the place blows up. In the present, Juan Cabrillo, the captain of the intelligence ship Oregon, is involved in a mission whose object is to find a memory stick containing the names of all Chinese secret agents operating in the U.S. No surprise, Juan’s present-day operation connects to the secret project on Corregidor, and soon he and his crew are fighting to recover thousands of doses of a potent compound that turns men into supersoldiers. Expertly drawn characters and a well-constructed plot make this one of Cussler’s better efforts. Agent: Peter Lampack, Peter Lampack Agency.

April 23, 2018
Veteran actor Brick’s dramatic rendition of book 12 in Cussler’s Oregon Files series enhances the nonstop action on board Capt. Juan Cabrillo’s camouflaged vessel, the Oregon. The book, which opens in the battle of Corregidor in 1945, features a double dose of villains—the sadistic Filipino Communist leader Salvador Locsin and his foe, sociopathic South American mercenary Gerhard Brekker—each with his own horde of homicidal minions. Both Locsin and Brekker are searching for the long-secret formula for typhoon, a steroid concoction that turns humans into superbeings, albeit with horrific withdrawals. They want to use the drug, whereas Cabrillo wants to destroy it. Actor Brick uses his natural speech for Cabrillo and company, adds a touch of Tagalog to Locsin’s threats, and employs a snarling if undetermined accent for Brekker’s ripostes. Both female leads are effectively represented in his performance—ex-Interpol art historian Beth Anders, searching for a half-billion dollars’ worth of stolen paintings, sounds eager and vulnerable, while her bodyguard, Raven Malloy, is impressively confident and tough. Brick’s best moments are during the novel’s slam-bang final confrontation, with the villains battling Cabrillo and each other and the Oregon suffering severe damage while a genuine typhoon rages. This rollicking audiobook will leave listeners bracing for more. A Putnam hardcover.