Wednesday, July 13, 2011

The Jefferson Key by Steve Berry


This is the 7th Cotton Malone story, and the first set almost entirely in the US, with a little sidetrip to Canada.

Author Steve Berry sets out to weave a story that begins with the failed assassination attempt on President Andrew Jackson and includes the shooting deaths of four Presidents, Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley and Kennedy.  He throws in an unsolvable cipher invented by President Thomas Jefferson and some Letters of Marque written by President Washington to four groups of pirates granting them legitimate status as Privateers in the service to America during the Revolutionary War.  Confused yet?  Then he mixes in an explanation of pirate crews by detailing the death of Edward Teach (the notorious Blackbeard,) and includes some history of the mystery of Oak Island and the treasure that was never found there.   
   Cotton Malone, the hero of the story, is finds himself drawn into the attempted assassination of the current President who orders Malone to find out who did it, where his former boss Stephanie Nell is, what the secret to the Jefferson cipher is, where some missing papers were hidden by Andrew Jackson, and stay alive while being pursued by pirates and an old enemy long enough to pull all this off.   Oh, and to find out who in his administration is leaking information that almost got the President killed.  Berry’s answer is both surprising and believable. 
   Berry uses real historical events to tie all this together into an interesting story without boring the reader with stale endless pages of dry facts.  He keeps things moving along at a quick pace, which is my one complaint about the story.  He tries to keep things moving a little too fast.  You barely have time to get into the action when he switches to another scene and you’re involved with something else.  Then he switches back to finish the first scene, and then jumps over to the second to give you some more of that.  You need to stay alert to keep up with the scene changes.
   But if you can keep up with Berry, you’ll discover a complex plot filled with enough mystery, intrigue, and action to entertain you.  You will also come to understand the fine line between pirates and privateers and why many feel there is no difference.  And you’ll learn of the ingenious cipher invented by Jefferson, which really exists and was used by him, and the reason it is so difficult to break the cipher. 
   All in all, a good read, but a little hard to keep pace with the scene switches.

Stephen Cram




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