Steve Berry Archives -

So this evening was spent in Paris, as I raced to the conclusion of Book 15 for 2012 The Paris Vendetta by Steve Berry. The Paris Vendetta released in 2009 is the 5th book in Berry’s Cotton Malone series and once again follows Berry’s successful formula of mixing historic fact with Berry fiction. In this installment the historic facts include Rommel’s Gold, Napoleon’s lost treasure and his exile at Ebla and St. Helena.

At the end of The Charlemange Pursuit , Malone, having just returned from Antarctica, is awaken by the sound of someone ascending the stairs of his apartment. The intruder is a young Secret Service Agent Sam Collins, who is being followed by two assassins. Collins is bringing a request for help from Malone’s friend Henrik Thorvaldsen. Soon Malone is pulled into Thorvalsen’s “vendetta” against Lord Graham Ashby, a wealthy Brit who was partially responsible for the murder of Henrik’s son. Ashby is a treasure hunter and is on the trail of both Rommel’s gold and Napoleon’s treasure. Ashby is also on the Justice Deartment’s radar because of his involvement with The Paris Club a cabal of billionaires who are set on manipulating the global economy. As Thorvaldsen pursues his revenge against Ashby, and Stephenne Nelle (Cotton’s old boss) is using Ashby and his pursuit of Napolean’s treasure to get to a terrorist in the employee of Ashby, Malone is caught playing both sides against the middle!! The book is fast paced like all the others and the characters are all great. I thought this book moved and “hung together” better than the others. Here’s what James Rollins said about the book:

So I picked up his latest book, The Paris Vendetta, and eyed it again with a bit of jaded skepticism. Surely he must have run out of steam. Who could keep producing masterworks of such precise plotting, complicated characters, and heart-pounding adventure year after year? So I settled into my favorite chair and turned the first page of The Paris Vendetta. Within a matter of paragraphs, I was riding with Napoleon through the scorching Egyptian desert, climbing the Great Pyramid for a midnight rendezvous, and discovering something earth-shattering was afoot. But what was it? A few pages later, his main character, the resourceful Cotton Malone, struggles to survive a firefight in his bookstore in Copenhagen. I found myself holding my breath, wincing as the suspense grew as taut as an assassin’s garrote, and quickly became embroiled in a conspiracy that trailed back centuries.

As I read that book, the hours vanished. Pages continued to fly by. And once again I was hooked. No, more than hooked… I was lost. In the end, that is the true magic and mastery of this man’s writing, the true reason he has become the king of intrigue. You don’t just read a Steve Berry novel. You live it. –James Rollins Read the full review here

Yeah, that was what I said only he said it JUST a little bit better, but then again he is a great author in his own right!! Anyway the poin is the book is very good and I’m looking forward to reading another Malone adventure but first it’s back to the world of John Wells in Alex Berenson’s latest The Shadow Patrol!

So I picked up three Steve Berry books a couple of weeks ago at the library’a used book sale one of them, The Charlemange Pursuit is Book 14 for 2012. The novel is the 4th in Berry’s Cotton Malone series. So far this is only my second Malone book the other being the current book (7) in the series The Jefferson Key. I have read one other Berry book The Amber Room, which is not a Cotton Malone book, which is probably why I don’t remember him in that book, ya’ think! Anyway I do really like Berry’s novels and the mixture of historical fact with some Berry fiction mixed in. The Charlemange Pursuit includes some historical information about the Carolingian period of European history, secret US submarines and a highly advanced civilization that may predate any civilization that we know! Oh and the search by the Nazi’s for their Aryan forefathers.

The story starts when Cotton Malone is given papers that prove that his father a naval officer died not in an accident in the North Atlantic but rather on a secret submarine on mission to Antarctica ! To discover how and why his father died Cotton must solve the Charlemange Pursuit based on information provided by the daughters and wife of a German businessman Dietz Oberhauser, who was also on the submarine. Malone’s mission is made more difficult by the actions of the Director of Naval Intelligence Admiral Ramsey Langford, who is out to stop any discovery of what happened on that mission! So while Malone is in Europe figuring out the Pursuit, Malone’s former boss Stephanie Nelle is in the US battling Ramsey whose bent on eliminating everyone associated with the mission!! So there’s lots of action and twists and turns as Cotton deals with the twin daughters and wife of Oberhauser and Stephanie Langford’s hired assassin!

I thoroughly enjoyed this book maybe even more than The Jefferson Key and will certainly expect to spend more time discovering the world with Cotton Malone. I have books 3 The Venetian Betrayal and 5 The Paris Vendetta and the question is do I read them or go back and start at the begining. Since both of the books I’ve read stand pretty well on their own, I think I’ll go with the ones I have, and then I will fill in with the others later!! But now I think it’s time for a Janet Evanovich book Smokin’ Seventeen!