The Venetian Betrayal

October 8, 2007
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.

October 15, 2007
Bookseller/former intelligence officer Cotton Malone can't stay out of trouble in his third adventure (after "The Alexandria Link" and "The Templar Legacy") that blends contemporary thrills with the historical past. Cotton receives a summons to a museum to meet the mysterious woman he reluctantly worked with in "The Alexandria Link". Arriving early, he is knocked unconscious and dumped inside the empty museum, then barely survives the arson that follows. The museum destroyed, Cotton is now a marked man. To survive, he must unravel a conspiracy involving an ancient coin, the death of Alexander the Great, and a ruthless central Asian dictator who will destroy anyone in her path. Massive plot twists and a relentless narrative pace result in another success from Berry. Expect this one to add to his readership and hit the best-sellers lists. For all popular fiction collections.Jeff Ayers, Seattle P.L.

Copyright 2007 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from October 1, 2007
Cotton Malone, who retired from the U.S. State Department to take up the presumably less dangerous life of a bookseller (in Copenhagen, of all places), becomes embroiled in still another international adventure with ties to ancient history (following The Templar Legacy, 2006, and The Alexandria Link, 2007). A group of nasties is trying to obtain eight elephant medallions that may provide the answer to one of historys greatest mysteries: What really killed Alexander the Great, and what happened to his body? Drafted into the effort to stop the baddies by the mysterious Cassiopeia Vitt, Cotton soon learns that dealing with the villainous Irina Zovastina, supreme minister of the Central Asian Federation, may be the toughest challenge hes ever faced. Typically, the novel is bigger than life, with characters who could have stepped out of a James Bond movie: people with splendidly inventive names, villains who are so evil you cant help imagining them wringing their hands and cackling. Berry isnt afraid to introduce outrageous plot devices, and he isnt afraid to slow down the action to allow his characters to engage in a little exposition-filled dialogue/backstory. But somehow it all works and works wonderfully: the reader will be engaged from the first page, thrilled by the story, entertained by the characters, and spellbound by the authors sheer bravado.A must for high-adventure thriller fans.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2007, American Library Association.)

January 28, 2008
Scott Brick continues to bolster his status as one of the best narrators of international thrillers with his excellent reading of Berry's latest. Once again, Cotton Malone, a retired intelligence officer turned rare book dealer, is thrown into the middle of a diabolical plot for world domination. Irina Zovastina, the Supreme Minister of a powerful collective of old Soviet republics, has an insidious plan to use biological weapons, at the cost of millions of lives, in a maniacal attempt to conquer the world. For her stratagem to succeed, she must unearth a secret hidden within the final resting place of Alexander the Great, a burial site whose location has been shrouded in mystery for millennia years. Brick easily negotiates his way through this complex plot, his confident delivery keeps the suspense high while bringing a solid reality to a story that often walks a fine line between the believable and the improbable. Simultaneous release with the Ballantine hardcover (Reviews, Oct. 8).