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Published in USA
Feb 2006
496 pages
Genre: Thrillers
Publication Information
Cotton Malone, one-time top operative for the U.S. Justice Department, is enjoying his quiet new life as an antiquarian book dealer in Copenhagen when an unexpected call to action reawakens his hair-trigger instincts – and plunges him back into the cloak-and-dagger world he thought he'd left behind.
It begins with a violent robbery attempt on Cotton's former supervisor, Stephanie Nelle, who’s far from home on a mission that has nothing to do with national security. Armed with vital clues to a series of centuries-old puzzles scattered across Europe, she means to crack a mystery that has tantalized scholars and fortune-hunters through the ages by finding the legendary cache of wealth and forbidden knowledge thought to have been lost forever when the order of the Knights Templar was exterminated in the fourteenth century. But she's not alone. Competing for the historic prize – and desperate for the crucial information Stephanie possesses – is Raymond de Roquefort, a shadowy zealot with an army of assassins at his command.
"The novel's overcomplicated conspiracies and esoteric brainteasers can get tedious, and the various religious motivations make little sense. But lively characters and action set pieces make this a more readable, if no more plausible, version of the typical gnostic occult thriller." - Publishers Weekly.
"After nearly grinding to a halt through all the premise building, the novel finally gathers steam in the last 100 pages or so, concluding with a revelation that seems refreshingly clear after the many convoluted twists that precede it." - Booklist.
"A long, tortuous journey to an unsurprising, though thoughtful, end." - Kirkus Reviews.
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Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Photo: Kelly Campbell
Steve Berry is the New York Times and #1 internationally bestselling author of the Cotton Malone novels (The Bishop's Pawn, The Malta Exchange), among other books, and several works of short fiction. He has 25 million books in print, translated into 40 languages. With his wife, Elizabeth, he is the founder of History Matters, which is dedicated to historical preservation. He serves as an emeritus member of the Smithsonian Libraries Advisory Board and was a founding member of International Thriller Writers, formerly serving as its co-president.
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