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The Venetian Betrayal (Cotton Malone, Bk 3)
The Venetian Betrayal - Cotton Malone, Bk 3 Author:Steve Berry In 323 B.C.E, having conquered Persia, Alexander the Great set his sights on Arabia, then suddenly succumbed to a strange fever. Locating his final resting place–unknown to this day–remains a tantalizing goal for both archaeologists and treasure hunters. Now the quest for this coveted prize is about to heat up. And Cotton Malone&ndas... more »h;former U.S. Justice Department agent turned rare-book dealer–will be drawn into an intense geopolitical chess game.
After narrowly escaping incineration in a devastating fire that consumes a Danish museum, Cotton learns from his friend, the beguiling adventurer Cassiopeia Vitt, that the blaze was neither an accident nor an isolated incident. As part of campaign of arson intended to mask a far more diabolical design, buildings across Europe are being devoured by infernos of unnatural strength.
And from the ashes of the U.S.S.R., a new nation has arisen: Former Soviet republics have consolidated into the Central Asian Federation. At its helm is Supreme Minister Irina Zovastina, a cunning despot with a talent for politics, a taste for blood sport, and the single-minded desire to surpass Alexander the Great as history’s ultimate conqueror.
Backed by a secret cabal of powerbrokers, the Federation has amassed a harrowing arsenal of biological weapons. Equipped with the hellish power to decimate other nations at will, only one thing keeps Zovastina from setting in motion her death march of domination: a miraculous healing serum, kept secret by an ancient puzzle and buried with the mummified remains of Alexander the Great–in a tomb lost to the ages for more than 1,500 years.
Together, Cotton and Cassiopeia must outrun and outthink the forces allied against them. Their perilous quest will take them to the shores of Denmark, deep into the venerated monuments of Venice, and finally high inside the desolate Pamir mountains of Central Asia to unravel a riddle whose solution could destroy or save millions of people–depending on who finds the lost tomb first.
I think Berry uses a formula, or at the very least common structural points. I read The Alexandria Link and this book. Let's see: a bad guy who is actually a good guy, some house or building gets burned down, searching for some obscure historical entity in the Middle East/Eastern Soviet Bloc, US presidential involvement...let alone the same five characters. I realize that he wants to keep the same characters working through many books, but give me a break. Get a plot that is different! Getting through this was work. I almost quit on it.
This is another "historical riddle" thriller in the vein of The DaVinci Code. Join Cotton Malone on a quest to discover the lost tomb of Alexander the Great. Using a riddle left behind by one of Alexander's generals and heirs, Ptolemy, Cotton is joined by friends, Cassiopeia, Henrik and Stephanie on a trail from Copenhagen and Amsterdam to Venice and ultimately to western Asia. Along the way, we meet greedy businessmen, cruel despots and sneaky politicians (talk about a bunch of redundant descriptions!). Of course there is a plot for world domination involved. Lots of needless violence and senseless killings ... destruction of beautiful things ... deceit and betrayal and secrets. I like Cotton Malone as a character, and I totally appreciate the loyalty he bestows upon his friends. but this story seemed less about the characters and more about how the next scene would look on film. Most of the chapter endings and section breaks seemed tailor-made for placement of commercials - you know, like little "cliff-hangrers" to keep you watching for the next five minutes. With a book this long (550 pages) that got quite tedious. I also felt like we weren't given the opportunity to noodle out the solution to the riddle for ouselves - THAT was also sorta designed for the screen. All-in-all, the book was certainly readable, but not solvable. Good escapist story.
Another great Cotton Malone adventure. For me, it tended to get a little too political in spots; but still a very good read. I can't wait to read the next Cotton Malone experience!
Although Cotton Malone seems to be finding more trouble as a bookseller than he might have as an agent, well, James Bond seemed to do just as well. These books are well written, well researched and thoroughly enjoyable spy type thrillers. I suspect that they will continue on my must read list until Steve Berry stops writing them.
Kim T. reviewed The Venetian Betrayal (Cotton Malone, Bk 3) on
Cotton Malone, former agent for the US Dept. of Justice, is enjoying a quiet life in Copenhagen as proprietor of a newly refurbished antiquarian book shop, when he is once again called out of retirement by his wealthy and highly connected friends Henrik Thorvaldsen and Cassiopeia Vitt. This time they want his help tracking down whoever is secretly amassing a collection of ancient Greek coins and burning down museums all over Europe in the process. Meanwhile, the American Secret Service is keeping a wary eye on Zovastina, a buzkashi-playing female dictator in Central Asia who fancies herself the modern incarnation of Alexander the Great. When an American agent sent to Italy to investigate the connections between Zovastina and a secretive group of wealthy international businessmen suddenly disappears, Cotton and his friends find themselves working in parallel with Cotton's former boss from USDOJ Stephanie Nelle. Their paths finally cross at the Basilica di San Marco in Venice, where the last of the Greek coins resides and where Zovastina has just arrived to observe the opening of St. Mark's tomb for the since the martyred saint was interred there in 1089. Or was he? There is an ancient rumor which says that the remains brought from Mark's original tomb in Alexandria to Venice were not his, but those of Alexander the Great. The clues to this mystery seem to lie in the ancient coins and in a riddle composed by Alexander's general Ptolemy. The quest for Alexander's final resting place takes the team from Venice to the Pamir Mountains of Central Asia. There, behind the walls of a modern Xanadu built by one of Zovastina's unsavory associates may lie not only the answers they seek, but also a secret of even greater significance for the world in general--and for Cotton's friend Cassiopeia in particular.
If you enjoyed Steve Berry's earlier Cotton Malone stories, you will like this addition to the series as well. It follows the same formula: a first chapter giving a first-hand account of some atrocity related to the real historical event that provides the central mystery in the story; another chapter introducing the personal crisis that draws Cotton Malone away from his quiet bookshop and sets him on the trail of the latest bad guys. The villains are generally unscrupulous politicians or businessmen who have some new information about the historical mystery which they plan to exploit to gain untold wealth and power. They will be supported throughout the story by an endless supply of mercenaries with an inexplicable sense of loyalty to their leaders but no moral sense or conscience otherwise. Cotton will lose at least one former friend or associate to these bad guys in each book, but he will be able to count on continuing characters Thorvaldsen, Witt and Nelle to show up and rescue him from any inescapable peril. They will then work together to support him as he uses logic and an encyclopedic knowledge of history gleaned from rare books to solve the mystery. OK, it ain't Shakespeare, but it is fast-paced, page-turning fun. You can't help but learn a little history, too.
