The Bootlegger

When Isaac Bell's mentor Joseph Van Dorn is shot during the pursuit of a rum-running boat in 1920, Bell swears to find the men responsible. What begins as a bootlegging case reveals itself as something far more dangerous: a professional organization connected to the Russian secret police and operating at a scale that suggests the real target is not profit but destabilization. Cussler and Scott's seventh Isaac Bell novel uses Prohibition-era America with the series' characteristic historical sweep, from post-war Europe to the speakeasies of New York.

Scott Brick's narration has been synonymous with Isaac Bell since the series began, his voice carrying the early twentieth-century detective's mixture of personal loyalty and professional precision with practiced ease. The personal stakes of a mentor in peril give this entry an emotional urgency that distinguishes it from more purely plot-driven installments. At just under twelve hours, The Bootlegger moves with the period-thriller momentum that has made the series one of Cussler's most durable.