Ship of Gold — Thomas B. Allen

This taut thriller provides the behind-the-scenes reality of the national security system at work --the CIA, the Oval Office, the Pentagon, and the National Security Council - -- and is must-reading for fans of Tom Clancy and W.E.B. Griffin. In 1945, the U.S. submarine Tigerfish mistakenly torpedoed and sunk a Japanese merchant ship. Reportedly carrying supplies to allied POWs, the ship had been given safe passage, but was actually a cunning ruse devised by a powerful secret society to transport tons of gold out of Japan under the very eyes of the enemy. Some thirty years later, the captain of the Tigerfish is murdered in Washington. As the CIA launches its investigation into his death, a race to raise the ship and recover its treasure begins, which mounts to an international incident involving the U.S., China, the Soviet Union and Japan.