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.

THE VENETIAN BETRAYAL opens in true Steve Berry fashion with a historical scene that lends to the background of the plot.  In this case we find Alexander of Macedonia (the Great) brooding over the loss of Hephaestion, his friend, warrior, and possibly lover who has died.  In his grief he blames Glaucias, the physician for his death, and is executed, but not before we learn that Alexander is ill.  Berry immediately shifts to Cotton Malone, the main character for the author’s series of historical novels.  Malone is a former US Justice Department covert operative who retired two years ago and purchased a bookstore in Copenhagen.  Malone notices a door to a Greco-Roman museum is open so he enters only to find himself in grave danger and is saved from an arsonist’s work by Cassiopeia Vitt, an archeologist, scholar, and a women of many martial talents.  Vitt and Henrik Thorvaldsen, a Danish philanthropist among his many interests have appeared in previous novels as has Stephanie Nell who was a member of the Magellen Billet, an undercover Justice Department operation, and with similar agendas they work well with Malone.

The story is a complicated one.  It seems that when Alexander the Great tried to conquer India around 323 BCE he was met by soldiers riding elephants which he and his army had never experienced and were decimated.  It appears elephant medallions were created and minted to highlight this episode and a number of individuals want to acquire the eight or nine that still exist.  The characters that are developed include Enrico Vincenti, the leader of the Council of Ten that governed the Venetian League, a group of 432 powerful men and women who resented the obtrusiveness of the Italian government.  The Council replicated the 14^th century version of this governing body and their membership had their own concept of wealth and government.  Vincenti is a wealthy man who is the largest stockholder in Philogen Pharmaceutique, a Luxemburg corporation headquartered in Venice but has a complex in Xingyang located in western China.  Philogen’s chief scientist, Grant Lyndsey has developed important viruses and their antiagents that may be weaponized.  The other major character is Supreme Minister Irina Zovastina, the leader of the Central Asian Federation, a grouping of former republics of the Soviet Union that have formed their own political entity, and is obsessed with Alexander the Great.   Vincenti and Zovastina are deeply ambitious and it is interesting to see how their relationship unfolds and how they deal with each other’s goals that do not totally dove tail.  Further confusing the plot line is Viktor Tomas, a double or possibly a triple agent who seems to be in the pay of all sides that appear in the novel.  The question that underlies the novel is how these characters relate to each other and how does the elephant medallions, Lyndsey’s work, and the divergent agendas of the main characters come together to form a suspenseful thriller.

A further plot line which overshadows the first part of the book has to do with the final resting place of Alexander the Great.  Zovastina is convinced that if she can find his remains she can use it as a symbol to spread her federation westward to defeat Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan before she made a move into the Middle East.  She saw herself as replicating Alexander the Great who originated in the west and moved east, Zovastina wanted to reverse the process by moving from the east toward the west.  Enhancing this line of the plot is a secret cure called the “draught” that was used in antiquity to conquer disease.  Further, is the work of Ely Lund, a researcher in a museum in Samarkand, who uncovered a number of important ancient manuscript pages that were linked to the medallions and Alexander the Great’s final resting place.   Malone and company are drawn into this entanglement which includes the Vatican, the president of the United States, biological weapons, and a host of unsavory characters.

Berry does a remarkable job shifting scenes and creating tension.  His historical and Bill Bryson like descriptions are to be commended as HIV research becomes a major component of the story, in addition to the “Greek fire,” an arsonist’s solution that seems to engulf museums across Europe.  If you enjoy fast action, counterfactual history, and strong character development you will enjoy Berry’s work.  For myself I look forward to THE CHARLEMAGNE PURSUIT, the next installment of Berry’s Cotton Malone series.

(Samarkand, Uzbekistan)

(Philip II of Spain and Hapsburg Emperor)

Toward the end of the late 16^th century the reign of Philip II of Spain and ruler of the Hapsburg lands of Central Europe seemed threatened by external and domestic forces.  Externally, Queen Elizabeth of England worked to undermine his kingdom by supporting pirates and the armies of William of Orange as the Dutch continued their revolt against the Spanish monarch.  Across the Pyrenees, the King of France also did his best to cause difficulties for Philip.  Internally, Phillip had to deal with Moriscos, Moslems or Moors who had converted to Catholicism to avoid the punishment of the Inquisition.  This time period serves as the backdrop for Matthew Carr’s wonderful new novel, THE DEVILS OF CARDONA, an exploration of the social, economic, and political forces at work in Philip II’s kingdom through a plot centering on the murder of a despised Catholic priest, Padre Juan Panalle in the Belmar de la Sierra, an area in north eastern Spain near the French border.  Panalle was a despicable character who used his flock, mostly converted Moslems, to meet his sexual and economic needs.  Officials in Madrid had grown increasingly concerned about the Moslem threat and ordered Licenciado Bernardo Francisco Baldini de Mendoza a young judicial official to travel from his home in Valladolid in Castile to the site of the murder in Aragon and arrest and convict the guilty party.

Mendoza is a fascinating character who had witnessed the work of the Inquisition as a youngster and was still subjected to nightmares as an adult.  He never imagined that he would be part of the legal system that the Inquisition dominated during his career.  The instructions he received seemed clear, but as his work began his charge seemed much more complex than he was led to believe.  First, he had to deal with the goals of the Inquisition and its emissary, Mercader.  Second, was the government’s jurisdiction in Belmar, which fell under the auspices of the Countess of Cardona who had full jurisdiction over her kingdom that included Inquisitors and his Majesty’s own officials dating back to 1085, and recently renewed by Charles V in 1519.  Many of her vassals were Moriscos and she believed in bringing her subjects to Catholicism through acts of kindness, not the hammer blows of the Inquisition.  Mercader is convinced that the Countess is secretly allowing her subjects to maintain their Islamic faith, a charge that she vehemently denies.  Third, upon traveling to Cardona, Mendoza learned of the murder of three brothers which seemed to be an act of revenge perpetrated by Moslems. Fourth, a vicious plot perpetuated by one of Philip II’s counselors who sought to enrich himself by acquiring the Cardona estates.  Lastly, Mendoza was exposed to the threat of a supposed Moslem “redeemer,” who sought to avenge the work of the Inquisition and retake Spain from Philip II and reinstitute Islamic rule.

Carr does a magnificent job of capturing the essence of late 16^th century Spain.  The cultural conflict between the Castilian and Aragonese regions is presented accurately as is the corrupt nature of the clergy, as well as the political and religious machinations of Philip II’s kingdom that greatly contribute to the novel’s plot.  The religious conflict between the Catholic Church and Islam dating back to the first half of the 16^th century and the political problems between Castile and Aragon in particular are explored nicely through the many colorful characters Carr creates.  The plot is further enhanced as the Countess of Cardona, a widow whose extensive holdings are sought by many men who see their own power and wealth threatened by her marriage status.  By integrating “marriage diplomacy” into his story line, Carr heightens the reader’s understanding of events by placing them in their proper historical context.

As the novel progresses Mendoza finds himself in a jurisdictional fight with Mercader and the Inquisition.  Mercader has his own agenda that would allow him to rid Spain of the Moriscos and elevate himself in the eyes of Philip II.  Murders keep piling up and the conflicts between vested interests dominate the novel as evidence of a real redeemer emerge, particularly when  a Moslem family is massacred by a Catholic smuggling ring, creating further confusion.  As Mendoza’s investigation continues it takes a number of unexpected turns that will capture the reader’s attention to the point they cannot put the book down.  If you enjoy a good mystery enhanced by the sights and sounds of 16^th century Spain, Carr’s effort will fascinate you.