Valhalla Rising by Clive Cussler (Penguin, £16.99)

THIS new adventure novel by bestselling American author Clive Cussler will still be published tomorrow, even though it features a terrorist attempt to destroy New York's World Trade Centre.

A spokesman for publishers Penguin insisted that the terrorist plot in the novel was just a "strange coincidence".

Cussler's hero, Dirk Pitt, has to stop a ship carrying liquefied natural gas from ploughing through New York's harbour and destroying the WTC. The terrorists, led by a renegade oil magnate, believe the disaster would turn American opinion against foreign oil and gas.

Earlier in the book, again in a chilling echo of the events of September 11, Pitt, flying an old passenger aircraft carrying handicapped children, is chased through the skies of Manhattan by a World War One German bi-plane. He has to use all his aviation skills to stop crashing into New York's skyscrapers.

Set in 2003, Valhalla Rising also includes the sinking of a luxury cruise liner and a submarine, both powered by revolutionary engines. These events are bizarrely connected to a group of Vikings, who settled in North America during the 11th century.

What starts out as a far-fetched but enjoyable romp turns sour once the World Trade Centre terrorist plot is revealed. A delay in publication might have been sensitive.

Hostage by Robert Crais

(Orion, £12.99)

THE charms of York certainly made an impression on American thriller writer Robert Crais. For he sets his latest thriller, Hostage, in an upmarket housing development called York Estates, named after the "legendary walled city of York in England".

Crais, who visited York last year to promote Demolition Angel, has now created family man Jeff Talley, a front-line negotiator with the Los Angeles Police Department until he quit when a job went tragically wrong. He failed to talk down a father who murdered his wife and son before killing himself.

Talley becomes despondent. His marriage breaks up and he escapes by taking up the job of chief-of-police in a sleepy community in California.

When a robbery of a mini-mart goes wrong, the three teenage raiders invade a luxurious home and take hostage a father and two children. But they don't realise that the accountant father launders money for Californian gangster Sonny Benza, and financial records inside the house could put Benza behind bars for life. So while Talley tries to negotiate the release of the hostages, Benza plans a way to get hold of the incriminating evidence - by kidnapping Talley's wife and daughter.

Hostage has strong characters, crisp dialogue and moves along at a blistering pace. Highly recommended.