The Dakota Cipher: An Ethan Gage Adventure (Ethan Gage Adventures) - Softcover

Dietrich, William

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0061760072 ISBN 13: 9780061760075

Publisher: Harper, 2009

Synopsis

“The Dakota Cipher is a supple, elegant thriller that carries the reader triumphantly from one exciting climax to the next.”
—Steve Berry, New York Times bestselling author of The Jefferson Key

Ethan Gage is a fearless adventurer who has crossed paths (and, sometimes, swords) with the likes of Napoleon Bonaparte and Benjamin Franklin—and whose unabashed derring do puts even Indiana Jones to shame. Now Gage is back for a third time in William Dietrich’s The Dakota Cipher, an ingenious page-turner that carries our hero to the American wilderness in search of an almost unthinkably powerful ancient artifact. No stranger to thrilling action himself, New York Times bestseller James Rollins, author of Black Order, The Last Oracle, and Altar of Eden, is a dedicated fan of Dietrich’s Ethan Gage novels, and proclaims that, “The Dakota Cipher should be read by anyone who loves adventure at its grandest.”

About this title

From the Back Cover

William Dietrich is back with another fast-paced new adventure—one that brings together Norse mythology, the American wilderness, and a swashbuckling explorer in an irresistible page-turner.

Ethan Gage, the hero of Napoleon's Pyramids and The Rosetta Key, just wants to enjoy the fruits of victory after helping Napoleon win the Battle of Marengo and end an undeclared naval war with the United States.

But a foolish tryst with Bonaparte's married sister and the improbable schemes of a grizzled Norwegian named Magnus Bloodhammer soon send Ethan on a new treasure hunt on America's frontier that will have him dodging scheming aristocrats and hostile Indians.

In 1801 newly elected president Thomas Jefferson, taking office in the burgeoning capital of Washington, D.C., convinces Ethan and Magnus to go on a scouting expedition—one that precedes that of Lewis and Clark—to investigate reports of woolly mammoths and blue-eyed Indians.

The pair have their own motive, however, which they neglect to share with the president: a search for the mythical hammer of the Norse god Thor, allegedly brought by fugitive Norsemen to the center of North America 150 years before Columbus. Can the hammer control thunder and lightning? Is there a core of truth to this myth?

Ethan's journey takes him across the Great Lakes to country no white man has seen, but not before he becomes entangled with a British temptress, a comely captive, a French voyageur, and a landscape as breathtaking as it is perilous.

Ancient Norse runes will lead him to his most fantastic discovery yet—and to wonder, danger, mystery, and sorrow that will test every ounce of wit and skill Gage can muster. The Dakota Cipher is another exciting adventure by a writer who has quickly become one of America's most beloved and inventive thriller masterminds.

About the Author

William Dietrich is the author of fourteen novels, including six previous Ethan Gage titles—Napoleon's Pyramids, The Rosetta Key, The Dakota Cipher, The Barbary Pirates, The Emerald Storm, and The Barbed Crown. Dietrich is also a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, historian, and naturalist. A winner of the PNBA Award for Nonfiction, he lives in Washington State.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0061760072
• ISBN 13: 9780061760075
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 368