![\"nighthawk\"](\"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/nighthawk.jpg\")
<\/a>The United States\u2019 most advanced aircraft\/spacecraft has gone missing, and the Air Force and the National Security Agency have called on NUMA, the National Underwater and Marine Agency, to help in the search.<\/p>\nWhen Kurt Austin, NUMA\u2019s intrepid head of special assignments, is hustled off a Hawaiian beach to lead the charge, he and Joe Zavala quickly begin to suspect that the secretive NSA isn\u2019t telling them everything.<\/p>\n
Clearly,\u00a0a lot is at stake, and to complicate things,\u00a0dangerous Chinese and Russian operatives are also looking for the craft.<\/p>\n
The Nighthawk, as it\u2019s called, had been orbiting the Earth for three years on a highly secret initial mission. It vanished mysteriously when it was preparing to land in California. The last signals received indicate it was somewhere over the South Pacific.<\/p>\n
As Kurt and company soon learn, the Russians and Chinese aren\u2019t just interested in the Nighthawk\u2019s advanced technology. The mission involved harvesting \u201cmixed-state matter\u201d from the polar magnetic field, and if the matter isn\u2019t handled properly \u2013 including being kept extremely cold \u2013 the matter and antimatter will combine to create a tremendous explosion. But if one country can secure it before it destroys much of the world, that country will have enormous power.<\/p>\n
Time is of the essence because the batteries of the cooling system will soon run out. Kurt and his small band of colleagues, including Emily Townsend of the NSA, must race to figure out where the Nighthawk is while thwarting attacks by the Chinese and Russians.<\/p>\n
This novel is in the best tradition of Kurt Austin\u2019s NUMA adventures \u2013 fast-paced, full of action and intrigue, brimming with unlikely feats and laced with occasional humor. The action ranges from the Pacific to the Andes, and from submarines and small submersibles to a variety of aircraft. There are plenty of high-tech gadgets and gizmos.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re looking for plausible, well-explained science or complex character development, you\u2019d better go elsewhere. But if you want to be entertained, kept on the edge of your seat and occasionally treated to some interesting bits of history, this book is worth your time.<\/p>\n
As an added treat, the ending, one of the best yet, will leave you smiling, if not laughing out loud.<\/p>\n
This is a good beach read, or, if you go for the audio version, a good tale to entertain you while you\u2019re driving to that vacation destination.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson NIGHTHAWK. By Clive Cussler and Graham Brown. Penguin Audio. Read by Scott Brick. 11 \u00bd hours; 9 CDs. $45. Also available in hardcover from G.P. Putnam\u2019s Sons. The United States\u2019 most advanced aircraft\/spacecraft has gone missing, and the Air Force and the National Security Agency have called on NUMA, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[551,13,426],"tags":[241,976,977,922],"class_list":["post-2157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-actionadventure","category-audio-books","category-popular-fiction","tag-clive-cussler","tag-kurt-austin","tag-nighthawk","tag-numa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2157"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2157\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2161,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2157\/revisions\/2161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}