Over the years I have developed a proclivity towards certain authors.  In the realm of historical fiction one of my favorites is Steve Berry.  Mr. Berry has published eleven novels in his Cotton Malone series.  Each is a thrilling read as they develop like a puzzle as each character, historical conundrum, and a suspenseful plot fits together like a glove.  I have recently read three of Berry’s novels, THE VENETIAN BETRAYAL, THE CHARLEMAGNE PURSUIT, AND THE PARIS VENDETTA all are stimulating for those who enjoy this genre and are thoughtful as the personal backgrounds of the characters and the historical context that is explored emerges.  The reader travels to Venice, Central Asia, and France as each mystery unfolds whether characters deal with the legacy of Alexander the Great, Charlemagne, or Napoleon as each plot builds on the past to the current issues of terrorism, world finance, or the world balance of power.

Berry’s protagonist Cotton Malone is a former naval officer, US Justice Department agent in the Magellin Billet that specialized in international cases who retired from the government and purchased a bookstore in Copenhagen.  Malone served as a government agent for twelve years and retired at a fairly young age for an individual with his skills.  He was on a case in Mexico City two years before he quit and witnessed the shooting of Mexican prosecutor Elena Ramirez Rico and her significant other Cai Thorvalsen, a Danish diplomat serving in Mexico City, and the son of Malone’s close friend the reclusive billionaire Henrik Thorvalsen.  Malone was wounded during the shooting and for him that was enough.  Thorvalsen approached Malone and offered to sell him the bookstore and the friendship flourished.  They became involved in a number of important situations and they become best friends.  Thorvalsen never gets over the murder of his son and his character is dominated by his feelings of loss and revenge.  Other important characters include Cassiopeia Vitt, an archeologist, scholar, and a women of many martial talents.  In addition, the reader will become familiar with Stephanie Nell who heads the Magellen Billet, and was Malone’s boss at the Justice Department.  Other characters that are included range from National Security advisors to the president, the president himself, other government agents, and a series of terrorists, financial wizards, and other unscrupulous individuals.  Alongside these people are historical personages that Berry relies on to enhance his story lines.

One of my favorite Berry novels is THE ALEXANDRA LINK where the reader is presented with a series of questions; what if the biblical basis for the Israeli state was incorrect?  What if the real evidence for the creation of the Jewish state was in western Saudi Arabia?  What if the ancient translations that led to the writing of the Old Testament from old Hebrew and Greek were open to an interpretation that could destabilize both Israel and Saudi Arabia and reorient the geopolitics of the Middle East?  Intertwine the writings of St. Augustine and St. Jerome; add some nefarious characters that would stand to enhance their power and monetary profit, and sprinkle in American politics and you have a stunning novel.

Another favorite is THE LINCOLN MYTH which has as its main theme the concept of secession and whether the Founding Fathers may have supported the idea that the union of the United States was not a perpetual one.  Berry develops a scenario for Malone to solve that focuses on Brigham Young, the leader of the Mormon Church in 1854 predicting that the Civil War would occur and that would end the persecution of Mormonism.  Young will inform Lincoln where Mormon gold was stored, and Lincoln will provide a document, signed by the Founding Fathers, that said individual states possessed the right to leave the union.  There are six more novels in the Cotton Malone series and I look forward to reading the few I have missed including his latest THE 14^TH COLONY that deals with Canada, an American constitutional crisis, and a former KGB officer.

If you enjoy counterfactual history, in depth character development, and being kept on the edge of your seat Berry’s Cotton Malone series is for you.   For in depth reviews of Steve Berry’s books visit http://www.docs-books.com.

(The Louvre Museum, Paris)

Steve Berry’s novel, THE PARIS VENDETTA provides his usual blend of wonderful primary and secondary characters, intensity, reflecting a firm grasp of history, and the ability to bring the reader to the edge of their seats.  The book is the fifth installment of the Cotton Malone series.  Malone is a former naval officer, US Justice Department agent in the Magellin Billet that specialized in international cases who retired from the government and purchased a bookstore in Copenhagen.  For the first time we learn the details as to why Malone retired at a fairly young age for an agent with his skills.  He was on a case in Mexico City two years before he quit and witnessed the shooting of Mexican prosecutor Elena Ramirez Rico and her significant other Cai Thorvalsen, a Danish diplomat serving in Mexico City, and the son of Malone’s close friend the reclusive billionaire Henrik Thorvalsen.  Malone was wounded during the shooting and for him that was enough.  Thorvalsen approached Malone and offered to sell him the bookstore and the friendship flourished.  They became involved in a number of important situations that have been told in earlier novels.  In the current case it seems that after two years Thorvalsen has identified who killed his son, an action that had devastated the Danish aristocrat and for him revenge and the humiliation of the man responsible was foremost in his mind.  It seems that two men Amando Cabral and Lord Graham Ashby, men who traded in stolen antiquities were about to be charged in a Mexican court for their activities when the killings took place.  Malone was able to kill Cabral, but Ashby, the man who Thorvalsen blamed remained free.

It would not be acceptable for a Berry mystery to just be about murder and revenge and THE PARIS VENDETTA is no exception.  Berry’s novels immediately create a puzzle with each component of the story carefully crafted to arouse the reader’s curiosity, and the current volume is no exception.  At the onset of the plot Berry introduces Napoleon Bonaparte into the equation.  We meet the French dictator in Cairo fourteen months after he has conquered Lower Egypt.  While examining the Pyramids Napoleon decides he must return to Paris because the ruling Directory is not following the revolutionary agenda and has made enemies of most of Europe.  Napoleon’s supposed wealth becomes a major factor in the story’s development.  We are led to Corsica and other environs as Ashby and others seek the deposed dictator’s cache, if in fact it exists.  Further, the Napoleon’s writings become important because according to Thorvalsen the key to uncovering Napoleon’s wealth is in his personal library.  For Ashby the cache is extremely important because of financial difficulties and he is hell bent to locate it.  It seems that Lord Ashby, a “rich” English banker, a possible double agent for the United States, and investor in one of England’s most important financial institutions has made a number of poor decisions and even though his situation has improved by uncovering Edwin Rommel’s gold hidden in Corsica in 1943 he needs further funds.

(a defeated Napoleon)

Another thread in the story is seen through the character of Eliza LaRocque, a rich woman who has maintained a vendetta against the Bonaparte’s since the time of the French emperor’s reign due to how her ancestors were treated.  She has gone on to create the Paris Club, a group of billionaires whose main goal is to influence world markets and financial institutions as a vehicle to enhance their wealth, even if she exploits the terrorist threats.  She joins forces with Ashby, but each have their own agenda in uncovering Napoleon’s cache of wealth.  In addition, Berry introduces the reader to Sonny Collins, an American secret service agent whose bosses have questioned his quest to expose financiers who continue to enhance their wealth financing debt, and wars in particular.  Thorvalsen introduces Collins to Malone and after laying the groundwork in the first part of the book the plot is enhanced, particularly when the international terrorist Peter Lyon is introduced. The question that must be asked is how do all of these characters fit together, and how does Malone navigate the complex situations he finds himself in because of his friendship with Thorvalsen.

Berry’s observations and historical background presented ring very true, especially his remarks about Napoleon and contemporary French society.  Berry’s astute remarks regarding religious and ethnic polarization in today’s France, keeping in mind that THE PARIS VENDETTA is published in 2009, points to the marginalization of France’s Moslem population and the rise of the political right.  If one is looking for a reason why ISIS has been able to create such havoc in France during the last calendar year all one has to do is look to how people of the Islamic faith have been treated in France.

Overall, Berry maintains the quality of knowledge and plot that pulse through the entire Cotton Malone series, and if you are interested the next installment is THE EMPEROR’S TOMB.

(The Louvre Museum in Paris)

(Charles the Great-Charlemagne king of the Franks and Holy Roman Emperor)

I have been searching for a post-election tonic as I contemplate the future.  My solution has been Steve Berry novels.  Having just completed THE VENETIAN BETRAYAL I have moved on to THE CHARLEMAGNE PURSUIT to keep my mind from contemplating what a Trump administration might produce.  Mr. Berry did not let me down as he weaves “historical license” with an imaginative mystery to keep me grounded.  Berry’s protagonist remains Cotton Malone, a former naval officer and a member of the Justice Department’s top secret overseas Magellan Billet.  In THE CHARLEMAGNE PURSUIT, the fourth in the Malone series we meet a more personal and introspective character as the novel begins in November, 1971, where Commander Forrest Malone of the USS Blazek, a nuclear powered submarine operating under Antarctica is confronted by a number of issues, the most dangerous of which is a leak of potassium hydroxide fluid that poisons the air on board and Malone’s twenty six year naval career, along with his crew comes to an end.  Cotton was ten years old when his father died aboard the submarine and the government never offered a detailed explanation of what had gone wrong.  Later in life during his naval and Justice Department careers Cotton tried to learn the truth to no avail.  After a nasty situation in Mexico had transpired, Malone decided to retire and purchased a bookstore in Copenhagen.  A few years later the death of his father and the lack of information continued to gnaw at Malone and he convinces his former boss at the Magellan Billet, Stephanie Heller to provide him with naval documents that might lead to the truth.  After receiving an envelope while in Gamisch, Germany with a report on the USS Belzak, Malone is attacked and escapes.  The report from the US Navy Court of Inquiry is nothing more than the navy’s varnished version of what occurred and the misinformation enclosed drives Malone to continue his quest.

As is usual in a Berry novel the plot includes a version of history that is suggestive of a counterfactual approach.  In this case it involves Charles the Great, a.k.a. Charlemagne the King of the Franks and Holy Roman Emperor.  Berry would have the reader believe that in 1000 AD Otto III wanted to try and reconstitute Charlemagne’s empire, and proof is offered by a small volume that was taken from Charlemagne’s mausoleum.  The volume is in the possession of Dorothea Lindauer, a woman who claims that her grandfather was also killed on the USS Belzak.  The plot becomes very complex in that her grandfather was a Nazi, Hermann Oberhauser, who Heinrich Himmler had placed in charge of the German Ancestral Heritage – the society for the study of the history of primeval ideas designed to unearth evidence of Germany’s ancestors back to the stone age and reinforce many of Himmler’s peculiar racial beliefs.  It seems that Lindauer has a twin sister Christl Falk who approaches Malone to try and learn the truth of what took place in 1971 under the ice in Antarctica.  Further complicating the story is the fact that Oberhauser took part in a Nazi expedition to Antarctica in December, 1938 designed to see if Charlemagne’s teacher and biographer, Einhard’s book was in fact correct.

(Antacrtica)

If this is not confusing enough US Naval Intelligence head, Admiral Langford C. Ramsay has his own agenda when it comes to the USS Belzak.  Ramsay, a man who has further career ambitions dispatches an assassin to take care of anyone who is digging into the events of November, 1971.  It also seems that Edwin Davis, a deputy national security advisor to the president has an interest in learning the truth and despises Ramsay making for a series of interesting alliances among all the players involved.  The question is why does Ramsay go to such extremes after thirty eight years to maintain the navy’s cover-up of the sinking of the USS Belzak?  The story has reverberations of the Cold War with the Soviet Union, the pursuit of justice, the concerns of an ancient historian, the plight of the USS Belzak, the belief in the “Watchers” or the “first civilization” that the Nazis believed was Aryan in origin, and the death of Malone’s father, but what do they have to do with each other?

In addition to the above, Berry’s complex plot involves a German family with three interesting characters whose centuries old family legacy is at stake.  Also, two deputy national security advisors to the president each with their own agenda, and of course the president.  All of these components are blended together nicely as Berry tries to keep the reader off balance.  Mission accomplished, and the result is an excellent foray into what could be a past civilization, the interests of Nazi Germany, a major cover-up by the US government, and a group of egos that cannot continence each other.  Try this book and enjoy – the next one up in the series is THE PARIS VENDETTA.