What is the title of your latest release?
OBSIDIAN SKY
What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?
Ancient Biblical treasure lost at sea! Deadly drugs from an international cartel! Mysterious acts of environmental terrorism! And a global catastrophe that only Dirk Pitt can prevent!
How did you decide where your book was going to take place?
The inspiration for the story was, in part, a lost civilization called Tartessos, which had thrived in the vicinity of Cadiz, Spain. The historical prologue is set there, as well as much of the contemporary story. From there, the action moves to Italy, Libya, and the U.S.
Would you hang out with your hero in real life?
Absolutely. While I’d love to visit Pitt at his airport hangar filled with vintage autos and talk cars, I would be more inclined to share a bottle of tequila with him in a waterfront bar and pick his brain on how to solve the real problems facing the world today.
What are three words that describe your hero?
Intrepid, indomitable, and irrepressible.
What’s something you learned while writing this book?
Approximately 75,000 years ago, a massive volcanic eruption occurred at a place called Toba in Indonesia. A frigid volcanic winter enveloped the earth afterwards, initiating an extended cooling period on the planet. Anthropologists have detected a ‘genetic bottleneck’ in that timeframe, where the human population took a drastic plunge. Some have theorized that as few as a thousand humans may have survived the event. If not for those scant hardy souls, we wouldn’t be here today.
Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?
Both. I’m the type of dinosaur that still writes in longhand, although I’ve graduated from a yellow pad to an electronic tablet. If I win the wrestling contest with the tablet, I make a rough editorial pass during the conversion, followed by a more thorough review once the whole mess is cleanly digitized.
What’s your favorite foodie indulgence?
Anything from an Italian bakery in Wallingford, Connecticut, called Mozzicato’s. There’s not a morsel in the place that isn’t worth selling your soul for.
Describe your writing space/office!
Over the years, I’ve written in public libraries, leased offices, home offices, and even in arena bleachers during my children’s ice-skating lessons. I currently have a Spartan rental office with a large picture window that provides a quiet place to focus. When the space, opportunity, and weather permit, however, I love writing outdoors.
Who is an author you admire?
I work with four fabulous authors on the other Cussler franchise series – Graham Brown, Jack DuBrul, Mike Maden, and Ryan Pote – who are not only terrific writers but great guys. Their writing inspires my own.
Is there a book that changed your life?
ICE STATION ZEBRA by Alistair MacLean was the first adult book I read as a kid, and it always stuck with me. It opened the world of action-adventure stories to me. It also taught me at an early age that the book is always better than the movie.
Tell us about when you got “the call.” (when you found out your book was going to be published). Or, for indie authors, when you decided to self-publish.
My call came from my father, who rang me up and asked if I’d like to try co-writing a book with him. It was an unexpected shot of adrenaline of the best kind, and I’ve counted my lucky stars ever since.
What’s your favorite genre to read?
I like spy novels, but I bounce around different genres. I’m currently reading a collection of Western stories by Dorothy Johnson (THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE).
What’s your favorite movie?
Lawrence of Arabia. I’m so devoted, I even listen to the soundtrack in my car.
What is your favorite season?
Living in Arizona, it is absolutely the fall. The arrival of cool weather after the brutal summer heat feels like being paroled from prison.
How do you like to celebrate your birthday?
Seeing if I can still blow out all the candles on the cake, followed by a stiff margarita.
What’s a recent tv show/movie/book/podcast you highly recommend?
The TV series Slow Horses has reeled me in. Gary Oldman’s performance is absolutely addictive.
What’s your favorite type of cuisine?
New Mexico’s regional cuisine is tops for me. My wife is from Los Alamos, and I’d walk a barefoot mile for her homemade enchiladas.
What do you do when you have free time?
I like to tinker with old cars. I have a 1973 Pantera that I am currently resurrecting from long-term storage and I’m anxious to get it back on the road.
What can readers expect from you next?
Evil never rests, so there’s another Dirk Pitt adventure well in the works. Now if only I can figure out how to download it from my tablet.
A forgotten civilization. A lost Biblical artifact. A criminal enterprise lurking beneath the seas. What links them with a potential cataclysmic event that threatens all of humanity? That’s the question facing Dirk Pitt in this latest electrifying novel in the beloved New York Times bestselling series created by the “grand master of adventure” Clive Cussler.
When National Underwater and Marine Agency director Dirk Pitt rescues a team of archaeologists trapped in a cavern by an earthquake, an unexpected artifact is discovered that rewrites history. A two‑thousand‑year‑old silver scroll contains a message in a language more ancient than Phoenician and offering clues to a priceless treasure from antiquity.
While they work to decipher the message, another mystery arises. A freighter has disappeared without a trace in the Mediterranean. When Pitt and his partner Al Giordino find the wreck, they discover that the cargo—a large scale particle accelerator capable of creating plutonium and radioisotopes—is missing. In the wrong hands, its use could spell disaster for Western civilization.
It’s only the first step in a perilous journey to uncover a trail of drugs, deceit, secret technology, and a conspiracy that threatens the planet. From a desperate car chase in the hills of Sicily, to a wild escape on a Spanish river, to a harrowing ride on an underground boring machine, the race begins to connect the pieces in a puzzle with very ancient roots but deadly modern consequences. Only Pitt can discover the truth and halt the plans to extinguish humanity and turn the skies to obsidian.
Thriller | Fiction Adventure [ G.P. Putnam's Sons, On Sale: November 10, 2026, Hardcover / e-Book / audiobook, ISBN: 9798217185016 / eISBN: 9798217185047 ]
Dirk Cussler, an MBA from Berkeley, worked for many years in the financial arena and now devotes himself full-time to writing. He is the coauthor with Clive Cussler of Black Wind and Treasure of Khan. For the past several years, he has been an active participant and partner in his father’s NUMA expeditions and served as president of the NUMA advisory board of trustees.
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