Book Tour begins November 24th in Scottsdale, AZ

PHOENIX-In TROJAN ODYSSEY Clive Cussler's hero, Dirk Pitt ®, battles his deadliest, and most extraordinary, foe - with help from a very unexpected source. Long hailed as the grandmaster of adventure fiction, Clive Cussler has continued to astound fans throughout the world with the intricate plotting and astonishing set pieces of his novels. TROJAN ODYSSEY is no exception as Cussler manages to weave the fall of Troy tale seamlessly with modern day marine biology and espionage. Now Cussler gives us his most audacious work to date. TROJAN ODYSSEY will be released November 24th in the U.S. and Canada. In between working on three new novels this year, the international television show THE SEA HUNTERS, www.seahunters.net and the movie of his best seller SAHARA, author Cussler was on an expedition in the North Sea for three weeks for his 501c3 non-profit, the real National Underwater & Marine Agency (NUMA). Cussler is not just an action adventure writer; he is the grand master because he has lived the adventures himself! The TROJAN ODYSSEY Book Tour begins at Poisoned Pen in Scottsdale, AZ, at 5 p.m., Monday, November 24th and continues Tuesday, November 25th in Albuquerque, NM. Other cities on the tour include: San Diego, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, CA; Denver, CO, St. Louis, MO; Oklahoma City and Dallas. Exact dates and locations for those cities to be determined.

At the end of VALHALLA RISING, Dirk Pitt ® discovered, to his shock, that he had two grown children he had never known, 23-year-old fraternal twins born to a woman he thought had died in an underwater earthquake. Both have inherited his love of the sea: the girl, Summer, a marine biologist; the boy, himself named Dirk, a marine engineer. And now they are about to help their father in the adventure of a lifetime. There is a brown tide infesting the ocean off the shore of Nicaragua. The twins are working in a NUMA underwater enclosure, trying to determine its origin, when two startling things happen: Summer discovers an artifact, something strange and beautiful and ancient, and the worst storm in years boils up out of the sky, heading straight for them and for a luxurious floating resort hotel square in its path.

The peril for everybody concerned is incalculable, and, desperately, Pitt, Al Giordino and the rest of the NUMA crew rush to the rescue, but what they find in the storm's wake makes the furies of nature pale in comparison. For there is an all-too-human evil at work in that part of the world, and the tide is only a byproduct of its plan. Soon, the work will be complete -- and the world will be a very different place. If Summer's discovery is to be believed, the world as we know it is already a very different place…Filled with dazzling suspense and breathtaking action, TROJAN ODYSSEY is Cussler at the height of his storytelling powers.

Cussler is the author or coauthor of twenty-four previous books, most recently the Dirk Pitt ® adventure VALHALLA RISING, and the Kurt Austin ® novels FIRE ICE and WHITE DEATH. He is also the author of the best-selling nonfiction THE SEA HUNTERS and THE SEA HUNTERS II. The non-fiction books chronicle the true adventures of the real NUMA weaving fact into a narrative one can't put down. The expeditions, led by Cussler, seek lost ships of historic significance. With his crew of volunteers, Cussler has discovered more than 60 ships, including the long-lost Confederate submarine the CSS HUNLEY, the CARPATHIA, the valiant ship that dodged icebergs to rescue survivors of the TITANIC and the GENERAL SLOCUM, the largest loss of life in New York history prior to 9/11/01.

Cussler, author of 19 best selling fiction and two best selling non-fiction books, describes himself as an entertainer from his days in advertising. Cussler's Dirk Pitt ® novels - including VALHALLA RISING, INCA GOLD and RAISE THE TITANIC! - have made him the undisputed Grand Master of the action-adventure novel. Like his fictional hero, Cussler is fascinated by the sea and the secrets it holds. That's why Cussler founded NUMA in 1979. This 501C3 non-profit is dedicated to preserving maritime history. Cussler and his team of NUMA marine experts and volunteers have discovered more than 60 historically significant underwater wreck sites. After verifying their finds, they turn the rights to the artifacts over to non-profits, universities or government entities throughout the world.

SAHARA is slated to be Paramount's July blockbuster release for 2004; it will star Matthew McConaughey as Dirk Pitt ® and be directed by Breck Eisner.

THE GOLDEN BUDDHA, the first in the new OREGON Files series, will be released October 7th in paperback.