Treasure of Khan

Treasure of Khan is the Dirk Pitt novel that Dirk Cussler co-wrote with his father Clive, with the Pitt and Giordino team investigating a sequence of incidents in the Mongolian and Central Asian region that turn out to involve the long-lost tomb of Genghis Khan and a contemporary Mongolian oligarch with grand political ambitions. The Mongolian setting is the book's genuine attraction.

The Cusslers' strength in Treasure of Khan is the careful Mongolian historical research and the geographical specificity of the setting. The Gobi Desert sequences, the Ulaanbaatar political texture, and the actual Khan historical material are rendered with the kind of attention that distinguishes the stronger late-Cussler entries. Fans of James Rollins's Bone Labyrinth or Lee Child's recent international Reachers will recognize the careful international-thriller register.

The plot machinery is the standard NUMA shape. The closing chapters land where the form expects.

Four stars. One of the stronger late-period Dirk Pitt entries. The Treasure of Khan Dirk Cussler and Clive Cussler novel works for both series readers and for newcomers; the Mongolian setting carries the book even for readers without prior NUMA familiarity.