Veena’s review of The Lincoln Myth: A Novel (Cotton Malone, Book 9) by Steve Berry
Mystery/Thriller published by Ballantine Books 20 May 14
Get ready for spine-tingling adventure and an in-depth history lesson into the constitution of the United States of America and the Mormons, especially the untold story from the point of view of Mr. Berry’s imagination. The author weaves his fiction so skillfully into the facts that it’s impossible to tell where one ends and the other begins. An enemy within the highest echelons of the government is poised to strike out at the very heart of what every American believes in. Get ready for nonstop adventure as Cotton Malone, retired justice department agent, races in on his white horse at full speed to protect and serve.
As I read I could imagine the delegation of the various states drafting the constitution. I can further imagine, by a good stretch of the imagination, that a second document was drafted as a means of ensuring that there were alternatives or at least guidance for the future in case things changed. My heart missed a beat when Abraham Lincoln receives documents for his eyes only at the cusp of the Civil War and makes the difficult choices necessary for the Unites States of America to prevail. It’s impossible to visualize the United States dissolving and going the way of the United Socialist Soviet Republic. How different our world would have been but for the choice that Mr. Lincoln made.
On a second note, I’ve been to Salt Lake City and have seen the temple from outside the walls and walked the square. I never, ever related the Mormon church to the young missionaries I met one summer while I sat in a sunny square in Florence, who were recruiting converts for the Church of the Latter-Day Saints. Thanks to this book I had a ringside view to the evolution of the Mormons and the founding of the temple in Salt Lake and its growth into a worldwide religion to be reckoned with both in money and power. It’s, therefore, very easy to take the next step to believing in the plot, which is central to this story, about taking this power and money to the next step in creating a self-governing country that is separate and apart from any other nation.
As the story unfolds, I keep thinking about how domestic terrorists are created through their desire to right perceived wrongs but without any care about what they deem as collateral damage in the way of their dream’s achievement.
The action begins from page one with Cotton Malone in deadly battle on the waterways near his quiet corner of Scandinavia, where he now makes his home. Malone’s lover Cassiopeia Vitt quickly steps on the stage, initially as a reluctant agent recruited by Malone’s old boss but transforms into what appears as a co-conspirator on the dark side. Love and relationships don’t last long with the two protagonists on opposite sides of the fence.
I enjoy thrill rides with Cotton Malone. He’s one of my favorite adventure and travel buddies. This story, though, has a very unexpected ending. I’m waiting with bated breath to see where Mr. Berry takes us on the next adventure with these characters.
Grade: A
Summary:
September, 1861: All is not as it seems. With these cryptic words, a shocking secret passed down from president to president comes to rest in the hands of Abraham Lincoln. And as the first bloody clashes of the Civil War unfold, Lincoln alone must decide how best to use this volatile knowledge: Save thousands of American lives? Or keep the young nation from being torn apart forever?
The present: In Utah, the fabled remains of Mormon pioneers, whose 19th century expedition across the desert met with a murderous end, have been uncovered. In Washington, D.C., the official investigation of a international entrepreneur, an elder in the Mormon church, has sparked a political battle between the White House and a powerful United States senator. In Denmark, a Justice Department agent, missing in action, has fallen into the hands of a dangerous zealot – a man driven by divine visions to make a prophet’s words reality. And in a matter of a few short hours, Cotton Malone has gone from quietly selling books at his shop in Denmark to dodging bullets in a high-speed boat chase.
All it takes is a phone call from his former boss in Washington, and suddenly the ex-agent is racing to rescue an informant carrying critical intelligence. It’s just the kind of perilous business that Malone has been trying to leave behind, ever since he retired from the Justice Department. But once he draws enemy blood, Malone is plunged into a deadly conflict – a constitutional war secretly set in motion over 200 years ago by America’s Founding Fathers.
From the streets of Copenhagen to the catacombs of Salzburg to the rugged mountains of Utah, the grim specter of the Civil War looms as a dangerous conspiracy gathers power. Malone risks life, liberty, and his greatest love in a race for the truth about Abraham Lincoln —- while the fate of the United States of America hangs in the balance.
Other books in this series:
