The Venetian Betrayal
A Novel
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- 4,49 €
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- 4,49 €
Publisher Description
“[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
BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Steve Berry’s The Columbus Affair and a Cotton Malone dossier.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In bestseller Berry's predictable third novel to feature Cotton Malone (after The Alexandria Link and The Templar Legacy), Malone takes on another villain bent on world domination, Irina Zovastina, supreme minister of the Central Asian Federation, who's plotting to use a bioweapon to destroy Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Malone races around the globe trying to find the means to foil the minister, aided by longtime allies Cassiopeia Vitt, an enigmatic and deadly operative, and his former Justice Department boss, Stephanie Nelle. The answer may lie buried with Alexander the Great's remains. Both the good and the bad guys let their opponents live in circumstances that make no sense except to prolong the plot, and the genuine mysteries surrounding the death of Alexander the Great receive short shrift. Despite some pedestrian prose ("He shook his head. Choices. Everybody made them"), this international yarn, full of shoot-outs and explosions, won't disappoint fans of Berry's previous action-packed thrillers.