Book Log 2011 #36: The Jefferson Key by Steve Berry


This latest installment in the Cotton Malone series brings the action to America, where he has to stop a group of modern-day pirates who claim to operate under the auspices of the Constitution's provision for privateers. The pirates have had their status challenged by a small number of Presidents - Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley, Kennedy - and they've responded in the same way each time. An attempt on the life of the current President sparks the hunt for the documents that would prove the pirate's legal status, a hunt that brings the usual mayhem that seems to follow Malone.

I was curious to see how this would play out, as US-based thrillers of this ilk tend to focus on Freemasons or the Illuminati or such groups. It's refreshing to see a new twist, even though it's not quite believable that the person who originally took the documents in question - Andrew Jackson - wouldn't just burn them. I suppose he wanted to keep the pirates in limbo in case he needed them, but there's still a weakness to the premise. It's not The Paris Vendetta weak, but it's not great.

Even so, if you've read the series it's a decent continuation. I see that Berry's next book is a stand-alone work, which will hopefully give him some time to get this series back to the more solid footing of its earlier entries.