Friday, April 12, 2013

Steve Berry's The Paris Vendetta is an entertaining read



If you are interested in a thriller novel that intertwines Napoleonic history with an adrenaline rush entailing modern day themes, then you will enjoy this book.

Steve Berry the author weaves together two major events.

First is the adventure of locating  a supposed hidden treasure that Napoleon had stolen and acquired from palaces, the Vatican, national treasuries and the Knights of Malta.

Secondly, A cabal called the Paris Club, composed of multimillionaires (and organized by  Eliza Laroque whose family has a vendetta against Napolean), is bent on manipulating the world economy.

 One of its members, Lord Ashby, is hell bent on locating the treasure. He also happens to be a a double agent for the US government.

Enter an ex- Justice Department operative named Cotton Malone. His close friend Henrik Thorvaldsen, a super-rich Dane industrialist, is determined to kill Lord Ashby who masterminded a plan that killed the Dane's son. Henrik also manages to become a member of the cabal.

Malone is warned by his former boss of  a mysterious undercover group that he is to stop the Dane's mission of revenge.

The novel plays out in Denmark, England and then Paris and depicts the conflicted Malone who must balance loyalty to his friend with his need to thwart the cabal.

The reader is in for many exciting scenes-- one in which a master terrorist remotely directs a plane at the Eiffel Tower to take down the entire Paris Club during its 'secret meeting.'

This book is my introduction to Steve Berry's novels, Malone and other characters who appear works.

I heartily recommend this novel.

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