2011;
508 pages. (570
pages, if you include the ‘extras’).
Book Six (out of nine, and soon to be ten)
in the “Cotton Malone” series. New
Author? : No. Genre : Action; Thriller. Overall Rating : 8½*/10.
The New York City assassination attempt on the
president was well-planned. Two
remote-controlled high-powered guns, from upper story hotel windows, in rooms
rented a week earlier. Plus, Cotton
Malone set up to be the patsy.
The thing is, the presidential visit was unannounced, so very few people
knew about it beforehand. That means
there’s a leak somewhere. And bizarrely
enough, the perpetrators might be pirates.
Well, privateers, actually. It
really irks them to be called ‘pirates’.
What’s To Like...
As
with any Steve Berry novel, the action starts immediately, and never lets up. There are multiple plotlines going on
simultaneously, and a zillion cliffhanger points, which Berry uses to switch
from one thread to another. This
scene-shifting can get excessive – sometimes 4 or 5 jumps in two pages – but it
is an effective device to keep you wanting to see what happens next.
There
are a slew of plot twists, a slew of government intelligence agencies, and a
slew of characters to keep track of. The
bad guys especially can get confusing with regards to who works for who, and
that changes occasionally. All the characters are “gray” to some extent. The POTUS has secrets he’d rather not tell,
and even the baddest of the baddies has at least a couple admirable
traits. Jonathan Wyatt is of a
particularly fascinating gray hue.
The Jefferson Key is a standalone novel, but it
helps if you’re already familiar with regulars – Cotton, Stephanie, Cassiopeia,
and Danny Daniels. The settings are less
exotic than usual – NYC, DC, North Carolina, and Nova Scotia. There’s just a modicum of swearing, no sex
scenes, but there is some graphic violence in the form of a couple torture episodes.
The more-recent Steve Berry novels always include extras at the end – a
Writer’s Note (what’s
real and what’s fictional), a short story (here, a 54-page “prequel” adventure
spotlighting Wyatt), and a sneak peek at the next book in the
series. The first two are worthwhile
reads; I never read the sneak previews.
Excerpts...
He cut a glance
at the two antsy agents, who held their position.
Not to worry, he thought. Soon
you’ll both join the fray.
He returned his
attention to his dinner, a delicious Cobb salad. His stomach bubbled with anxiety. He’d waited a long time for this. Camp by
the riverside. Advice he’d received
years ago – and as true as ever. If you
waited by the river long enough, eventually your enemies would float by. (pg. 206)
“Do you love
her?”
“Not anymore.”
The admission
shocked her.
“I haven’t in a
long time. It’s not malice, or hate, or
anger. Just nothing.”
His mellow tone
unnerved her. She was accustomed to the
booming voice.
“Does she know?”
“How could she
not?” (pg. 354)
“Privateers were the nursery
of pirates.” (pg.
102)
At
times The Jefferson Key seemed a bit
over the top. The final, dashing rescue
is exciting, but requires a significant suspension of belief; and Cotton has to
do some fancy stepping to save the day both
in Nova Scotia and North Carolina. Not
all the threads are tied up (but perhaps carry over into the next book?),
and one, the “second traitor” thread, just seems to fizzle out. In spots, it felt like I was reading a Clive Cussler novel, and that is not a plus for me.
I also don’t recall the previous books being so graphically violent, but
it’s been a while since my last Cotton Malone book.
Nevertheless,
Steve Berry is my favorite Action-Thriller author, and that hasn’t changed
after reading The Jefferson Key. His style may be formulaic, but he excels at
it. His books are always well-researched
and his twists to history are always original and innovative. The idea of pirates . . . oops, I mean
privateers. . . operating in present-day America is totally kewl.
8½ Stars. Highly recommended. Add ½ star if Dirk Pitt is your kind of hero.
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