Steve Berry

International bestseller Steve Berry returns with another brilliant Cotton Malone thriller involving a mystery about Abraham Lincoln and a political issue that's as explosive as it is timely - not only in Malone's world, but in ours. 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 nineteenth-century expedition across the desert met with a murderous end have been uncovered. In Washington, D. C., the official investigation of an 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 more than two hundred 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 spectre 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.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - A Cotton Malone adventure involving a flaw in the United States Constitution, a mystery about Abraham Lincoln, and a political issue that's as explosive as it is timely--not only in Malone's world, but in ours 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 nineteenth-century expedition across the desert met with a murderous end have been uncovered. In Washington, D. C., the official investigation of an 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 more than two hundred 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. Praise for Steve Berry and his Cotton Malone series "In Malone, Steve] Berry has created a classic, complex hero."--USA Today "Malone, a hero with a personal stake in the proceedings, is a welcome respite from the cold, calculating superspies who litter the genre."--Entertainment Weekly "Steve Berry gets better and better with each new book."--The Huffington Post "Savvy readers . . . cannot go wrong with Cotton Malone."--Library Journal "Berry raises this genre's stakes."--The New York Times "I love this guy."--#1 New York Times bestselling author Lee Child

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - This Cotton Malone adventure blends gripping contemporary political intrigue, Tudor treachery, and high-octane thrills into one riveting novel of suspense. Cotton Malone and his fifteen-year-old son, Gary, are headed to Europe. As a favor to his former boss at the Justice Department, Malone agrees to escort a teenage fugitive back to England. But after he is greeted at gunpoint in London, both the fugitive and Gary disappear, and Malone learns that he's stumbled into a high-stakes diplomatic showdown--an international incident fueled by geopolitical gamesmanship and shocking Tudor secrets. At its heart is the Libyan terrorist convicted of bombing Pan Am Flight 103, who is set to be released by Scottish authorities for "humanitarian reasons." An outraged American government objects, but nothing can persuade the British to intervene. Except, perhaps, Operation King's Deception. Run by the CIA, the operation aims to solve a centuries-old mystery, one that could rock Great Britain to its royal foundations. Blake Antrim, the CIA operative in charge of King's Deception, is hunting for the spark that could rekindle a most dangerous fire, the one thing that every Irish national has sought for generations: a legal reason why the English must leave Northern Ireland. The answer is a long-buried secret that calls into question the legitimacy of the entire forty-five-year reign of Elizabeth I, the last Tudor monarch, who completed the conquest of Ireland and seized much of its land. But Antrim also has a more personal agenda, a twisted game of revenge in which Gary is a pawn. With assassins, traitors, spies, and dangerous disciples of a secret society closing in, Malone is caught in a lethal bind. To save Gary he must play one treacherous player against another--and only by uncovering the incredible truth can he hope to prevent the shattering consequences of the King's Deception. Don't miss Steve Berry's novella The Tudor Plot and an excerpt from The Lincoln Myth in the back of the book. Praise for The King's Deception "A Dan Brown-ian secular conspiracy about the Virgin Queen driving nonstop international intrigue."--Kirkus Reviews Praise for Steve Berry "Berry raises this genre's stakes."--The New York Times "I love this guy."--#1 New York Times bestselling author Lee Child "Forget Clancy and Cussler. When it comes to this genre, there is simply no one better."--The Providence Journal

There is a secret from our history - 500 years old - startling in its revelations and devastating in its political impact. A secret that has, thankfully, stayed hidden. Until now. Former Justice Department agent, Cotton Malone, travels to England and finds himself caught in a dark conspiracy born long ago, in the time of the Tudors. Now both the CIA and MI6 seem to be competing to uncover the mystery and, for Malone, supposedly on holiday with his son, Gary, it's not just the action which comes thick and fast. When Gary disappears, Malone is forced into a race against time, as he battles to decipher a puzzle that leads him from the Middle Temple to the chapel at Windsor Castle, from an Oxford college to the sewers beneath Hampton Court. With assassins, traitors, spies, and dangerous disciples of a secret society closing in, Malone discovers that the solution to the mystery will not only draw him into a lethal trap, but force him closer to his own troubling past. And a shocking revelation.

A family's secret, a ruthless fanatic, and a covert arm of the American government--all are linked by a single puzzling possibility: What if everything we know about the discovery of America was a lie? What if that lie was designed to hide the secret of why Columbus sailed in 1492? And what if that 500-year-old secret could violently reshape the modern political world? Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Tom Sagan has written hard-hitting articles from hot spots around the world. But when one of his stories from the Middle East is exposed as a fraud, his professional reputation crashes and burns. Now he lives in virtual exile--haunted by bad decisions and a shocking truth he can never prove: that his downfall was a deliberate act of sabotage by an unknown enemy. But before Sagan can end his torment with the squeeze of a trigger, fate intervenes in the form of an enigmatic stranger. This stranger forces Sagan to act--and his actions attract the attention of the Magellan Billet, a top-secret corps of the United States Justice Department that deals with America's most sensitive investigations. Sagan suddenly finds himself caught in an international incident, the repercussions of which will shudder not only Washington, D. C., but also Jerusalem. Coaxed into a deadly cat-and-mouse game, unsure who's friend and who's foe, Sagan is forced to Vienna, Prague, then finally into the Blue Mountains of Jamaica--where his survival hinges on his rewriting everything we know about Christopher Columbus. Don't miss Steve Berry's short story "The Admiral's Mark" in the back of the book.

An all-new cast of characters in a standalone thriller from the New York Times bestselling writer. Tom Sagan is staring down the barrel of a gun - literally. He has lost everything he ever loved: his job, his wife, his daughter, his reputation. And - what hurts most - he knows the story which ruined his career as a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist was a set-up, a trap. But he can never prove it. They - whoever they are - have beaten him. And then his daughter calls him. But Alle doesn't want to forgive him. She wants information. Her postgraduate research into Christopher Columbus has put Alle in touch with Zachariah Simon, a supremely wealthy man with a powerful interest in both Columbus and Tom Sagan. What is the connection between the Sagan family and the man who ushered in a new age when he sailed for the Americas in 1492? To find out, Tom must embark on his own journey of discovery, and enter a world of danger and betrayal, of history and deadly conspiracy. What he finds could change the world forever.

An all-new cast of characters in a standalone thriller from the New York Times bestselling writer. Tom Sagan is staring down the barrel of a gun - literally. He has lost everything he ever loved: his job, his wife, his daughter, his reputation. And - what hurts most - he knows the story which ruined his career as a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist was a set-up, a trap. But he can never prove it. They - whoever they are - have beaten him. And then his daughter calls him. But Alle doesn't want to forgive him. She wants information. Her postgraduate research into Christopher Columbus has put Alle in touch with Zachariah Simon, a supremely wealthy man with a powerful interest in both Columbus and Tom Sagan. What is the connection between the Sagan family and the man who ushered in a new age when he sailed for the Americas in 1492? To find out, Tom must embark on his own journey of discovery, and enter a world of danger and betrayal, of history and deadly conspiracy. What he finds could change the world forever.

Born in the foothills close to the Himalaya Steve Berry had from an early age an urge to become a traveller, an adventurer, an explorer, and until the age of 38 years he tried hard to satisfy two opposing forces. Half of him wanted to find a satisfactory career path while the other half wanted to be free and specifically explore the Himalaya. In the end he found a compromise to satisfy both needs. In 1987 with his climbing friend Steve Bell he founded Himalayan Kingdoms, a travel company specialising in trekking and expedition holidays. This book is a collection of stories from his early expeditions to the Himalaya prior to 1987. There are tales of encounters with bears, escapes from avalanches, summit successes and failures, love stories, mystical connections, Himalayan storms, near death accidents, raw travel across the Indian sub continent, and grapples with bureaucracy. It is told warts and all. It starts with tales of youthful naivety in the mountains of Himachal Pradesh, progresses to what Steve describes as his best ever adventure, the first British ascent of Nun, 7,135m/23,410ft, in Kashmir, and finishes with the truth of what happened on the failed attempt to climb Bhutan's highest peak, Gangkar Punsum, 7550m/24,770ft. Of Straight Up Steve says, "I just really wanted people to enjoy reading of our adventures the way they were".

The seventh explosive Cotton Malone adventure - the first to be set in America. Cotton Malone has been called on to defend his country's safety in many exotic locations around the world, often using his knowledge of history to get to the heart of mysteries and conspiracies stretching back for centuries. But never has the danger been quite so close to home. A stunning opening sets the tone of explosive action and mind-bending intrigue as Cotton battles an extraordinary group of families whose unseen influence dates back to the pages of the U. S. Constitution - and whose thirst for power is about to be satisfied by the cracking of a code devised by Thomas Jefferson himself.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERFour presidents of the United States have been assassinated in 1865, 1881, 1901, and 1963 each murder seemingly unrelated. But what if those presidents were all killed for the shocking same reason: a clause contained in the United States Constitution? This is the question faced by former Justice Department operative Cotton Malone. When President Danny Daniels is nearly killed in the heart of Manhattan, Malone risks his life to foil the murder only to find himself at odds with the Commonwealth, a secret society of pirates first assembled during the American Revolution. Racing across the nation and taking to the high seas, Malone and Cassiopeia Vitt must break a secret cipher originally possessed by Thomas Jefferson, unravel a mystery concocted by Andrew Jackson, and unearth a document forged by the Founding Fathers themselves one powerful enough to make the Commonwealth unstoppable. Don t miss Steve Berry s short story The Devil s Gold and an excerpt fromThe King's Deceptionin the back of the book."

A new Cotton Malone adventure that takes our hero from Europe to the Far East in a race to unlock the mystery of an ancient tomb. Hearing that his old friend Cassiopeia Vitt is in trouble, Malone follows the few clues he has and realises that they are in the middle of something huge, involving Russian and US oil interests and a centuries-old secret. After stumbling across two dead bodies and into the crosshairs of his former boss, Malone finds himself in a race to unravel the mystery of an emperor's tomb, a sinister society, and a deadly battle between two ruthless men for supremacy in China - and the world.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERIncludes exclusive bonus material Former Justice Department operative Cotton Malone has received an anonymous note carrying an unfamiliar Web address. Logging on, he's shocked to see Cassiopeia Vitt, a woman who's saved his life more than once, being tortured at the hands of a mysterious man who has a single demand: Bring me the artifact she's asked you to keep safe. The only problem is, Malone doesn't have a clue what the man is talking about, since Cassiopeia has left nothing with him. So begins Malone's most harrowing adventure to date--one that offers up astounding historical revelations, pits him against a ruthless ancient brotherhood, and sends him from Denmark to Belgium to Vietnam then on to one of the greatest archaeological sites in the world: the tomb of China's First Emperor, guarded by an underground army of terra-cotta warriors, which has inexplicably remained sealed for more than two thousand years--its mysteries about to be revealed. DON'T MISS A SNEAK PEEK OF STEVE BERRY'S NEW NOVEL, THE JEFFERSON KEY, IN THE BACK OF THE BOOK.

Steve Berry offers his twistiest thriller yet, in a new adventure starring Cotton Malone and a secret conspiracy dating back to Napoleon.12.40 a.m. Copenhagen. Cotton Malone wakes up to find a stranger in his house, bearing bad news: Malone's closest and most dangerous friend, Henrik Thorvaldsen, is in serious trouble - and the men who want to kill him are on Malone's doorstep. Thorvaldsen has been tracking a shadowy group called the Paris Club. Not only does he believe that they are about to trigger a global financial meltdown, but also that one of the club's members murdered his son, Cai, two years ago. Thorvaldsen won't rest until he has avenged his boy's death. Dragged into his friend's schemes and secretly under pressure from the US government to stop both Thorvaldsen and the Paris Club, Malone soon discovers that the key to defeating the conspiracy and saving his friend's life - and his own - lies in the past, and an astounding treasure that Napoleon took to his grave.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - "All the Steve Berry hallmarks are here: scale, scope, sweep, history--plus breathless second-by-second suspense. I love this guy."--Lee Child Former Justice Department operative Cotton Malone wakes to find an intruder in his Copenhagen bookshop: an American Secret Service agent with assassins on his heels. Narrowly surviving a ferocious firefight, the two journey to the secluded estate of Malone's friend Henrik Thorvaldsen. The wily Danish tycoon has uncovered the insidious plans of the Paris Club, a cabal of multimillionaires bent on manipulating the global economy. But Thorvaldsen also harbors a hidden agenda--a vendetta--that will force Malone to choose between friend and country, past and present. Starting in Denmark, moving to England, and ending up in the storied streets and cathedrals of Paris, Malone is forced to match wits with a terrorist for hire and to plunge into a desperate hunt for Napoleon's legendary treasure, lost for two hundred years. It's a breathless game of duplicity and death, all to claim a prize of untold value. But at what cost? BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Steve Berry's The Columbus Affair and a Cotton Malone dossier. Praise for The Paris Vendetta"Outstanding . . . Berry has become the modern master of the thriller form."--Providence Journal-Bulletin "Thrilling . . . exciting and fast-paced . . . a worthy addition to a fine series."--Wichita Falls Times Record News "Steve Berry gets better and better with each new book. . . . In The Paris Vendetta] there are assassination plots, searches for hidden treasure, battles between enemies and even friends, and a taste of romance. . . . Bring on the next one "--The Huffington Post "This well-crafted thriller also offers plenty of surprises." --Publishers Weekly "Berry has written another amazing blend of suspense and history. Fans will love it, and for newcomers it's the perfect place to start. . . . Readers] cannot go wrong with Cotton Malone." --Library Journal

NEW YORK TIMES BESETSELLER - "Those who relish suspense in the Da Vinci Code vein will snap this one up, the best yet in the series."--Publishers Weekly (starred review) As a child, former Justice Department agent Cotton Malone was told that his father died in a submarine disaster in the North Atlantic. But what he now learns stuns him: His father's sub was a secret nuclear vessel lost on a highly classified mission beneath the ice shelves of Antarctica. Twin sisters Dorothea Lindauer and Christl Falk are also determined to find out what became of their father, who died on the same submarine-and they know something Malone doesn't: Inspired by strange clues discovered in Charlemagne's tomb, the Nazis explored Antarctica before the Americans. Now Malone discovers that cryptic journals penned in "the language of heaven," conundrums posed by an ancient historian, and his father's ill-fated voyage are all tied to a revelation of immense consequence for humankind. As Malone embarks on a dangerous quest with the sisters, he will finally confront the shocking truth of his father' s death and the distinct possibility of his own.

A pacy international suspense thriller with a historical twist, from the New York Times bestselling author. Ex-agent Cotton Malone wants to know what really happened to his father, officially lost at sea when his submarine went down in the north Atlantic in 1971. But when he uses his government contacts to obtain the submarine's sealed file, he finds he is not the only person looking for answers. Malone is in the line of fire when he is attacked in an attempt to take the file. He is pitched into a lethal power struggle between Dorothea Lindauer and Christl Falk, twin sisters whose twisted ambition takes sibling rivalry to new levels. Malone and the twins embark on a dangerous adventure involving Nazi explorations in Antarctica, US government conspiracies, and a series of cryptic historical clues built into the legend of Charlemagne. Forced to choose a side when neither can win, Malone is determined to uncover the truth behind his father's death - but will he be able to escape his own?

A pacy international thriller with a historical twist, from the New York Times bestselling author. For ex-field agent Cotton Malone the stakes have never been higher: a deadly virus that could wipe out civilisation as we know it - and a cure that lies buried in the past. A secret international coalition has created a lethal biological weapon. Whoever develops the cure will control the future of global warfare. Yet that cure could already exist, buried centuries before with Alexander the Great. When Malone hears about it, he joins the hunt for Alexander's long-lost tomb. His quest soon becomes a harrowing fight for truth that has unimaginable repercussions...

" Steve Berry] has a genuine feel for the factual gaps that give history its tantalizing air of the unknown."--The New York Times Book Review After narrowly escaping incineration in a devastating fire that consumes a Danish museum, Cotton Malone--former Justice Department agent turned rare-book dealer--learns from his friend, the beguiling adventurer Cassiopeia Vitt, that the blaze was neither an accident nor an isolated incident. As part of a campaign of arson intended to mask a far more diabolical design, buildings across Europe are being devoured by infernos of unnatural strength. Born from the ashes is a new Eastern European nation whose ruthless leader will soon draw Cotton into an intense geopolitical chess game against a shadowy cabal of power brokers. The prize lies buried with the mummified remains of Alexander the Great--in a tomb lost to the ages for more than two thousand years. Trekking from Denmark to Venice to Central Asia, Cotton and Cassiopeia are determined to solve an ancient puzzle whose solution could destroy or save millions of people--depending on who finds the lost tomb first. "There's nothing tastier than a globe-spanning mystery. . . . Berry's books excel at bringing out fascinating tidbits of history." --Richmond Times-Dispatch

History is being made and Miles Lord has a ringside seat. The people of Russia have voted to bring back the tsar, a ruler to be selected from the distant relatives of Nicholas II, who was murdered along with the rest of the Romanov family in 1918. Miles has been asked to run a background check on one of the candidates. But excitement turns to terror when Miles is nearly killed by gunmen. Suddenly, he is racing across continents with only a cryptic utterance by Rasputin, made at the time of the Romanov massacre, as his guide. The implications of this prophecy are earth-shattering - not only for the future tsar and mother Russia, but for Miles himself.