Amazon.com (ISBN 0312864450, Hardcover)

Steven Gould's Blind Waves is one of those books that makes you hold your breath a lot. This SF thriller takes place along what's left of the Texas Gulf coast after melting Antarctic ice has drowned much of the world. In New Galveston, a floating city, our plucky heroine Patricia Beeman uses her submarine to do salvage and inspection work. But when she stumbles upon a sunken ship full of freshly dead immigrants, she gets tangled in a dangerous web of politics, hatred, and corruption. Enter Commander Thomas Becket of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (now an armed force bigger than the Navy). Patricia and Thomas band together to beat the bad guys, and the adventure that follows delivers on all counts. Plenty of tense underwater action and zingy plot twists will keep thriller fans turning pages, while snappy dialogue, a delightfully budding romance, and homages to Shakespeare and Dorothy L. Sayers add literary flair. --Therese Littleton