Spartan Gold

Thousands of years ago, two superpowers of the ancient world went to war, and a treasure of immeasurable value was lost to the shadows of history.

In 1800, while crossing the Pennine Alps with his Grand Reserve Army, Napoleon Bonaparte stumbled across a startling discovery. Unable to transport it, he created an enigmatic map on the labels of twelve bottles of rare wine. When Napoleon died, the bottles disappeared-and the treasure was lost again.

Until now. Treasure-hunting husband-and-wife team Sam and Remi Fargo are exploring the Great Pocomoke Swamp in Maryland when they are shocked to discover a World War II German U-boat. Inside, they find a bottle taken from Napoleon's famous "Lost Cellar," and fascinated, they set out to find the rest of the collection. But another connoisseur of sorts is hunting his own prize, and the Lost Cellar is his key to finding it.

That man is Hadeon Bondaruk, a half-Russian, half-Persian millionaire, and the treasure will be his, no matter what.

Filled with the high-stakes suspense and boundless invention that are unique to Cussler, Spartan Gold is a dazzling thriller from the grand master of adventure fiction.

Clive Cussler is the author or co-author of a great number of international bestsellers, including the famous Dirk Pitt adventures, such as Arctic Drift; the NUMA Files adventures, most recently Medusa; the Oregon Files, such as The Silent Sea; and the Isaac Bell Adventures, which began with The Chase. Lost Empire is the second book in the highly successful new series -- the FargoAdventures. He lives in Arizona.

Grant Blackwood, a U.S. Navy veteran, spent three years aboard a guided missile frigate as operations specialist and pilot rescue swimmer. The author of the Briggs Tanner series, he’s the co-author of Spartan Gold, and lives in Colorado.