The Paris Vendetta
By Steve Berry
The Short Take:
Berry creates thrillers of the Dan Brown genre, only with tighter plots and better writing (from my point of view). I love the way Berry weaves facts, speculation, and his own imagination to create a rip roaring tale with one cliff hanger after another. This one is his best so far.
Why?
I was already a Steve Berry fan, but I believe he has taken things up at least a couple of notches with The Paris Vendetta. Once again, his Cotton Malone character (an ex-Justice Department Operative who just can’t seem to stay ex’d) races to save the civilization — or at least some portion of it — from the bad guys.
Those of you who are unhappy with the world’s financial organizations should take special delight in this outing: in Berry’s world there truly is a cabal scheming to make busloads of money by manipulating markets and causing them to crash.
Could this book be any more timely?
Plus, there’s a whole Napoleon Bonaparte angle that is pretty hard to resist.
A Little Plot:
Malone is summoned by his dear friend, the wealthy Henrick Thorvaldsen, to help him stop The Paris Club, a group of already filthy rich individuals who intend to get much richer by manipulating markets. Thorvaldsen also has revenge for his son’s violent death on his mind.
As if financial malfeasance weren’t enough, it turns out certain members of The Paris Club are in search of the legendary hidden treasure of Napoleon (could these guys be any greedier?). With the dubious help of a new sidekick and a conspiracy blog writer, Malone tries to deter The Paris Club. However, his mission is seriously complicated by the co-conspirators’ attempts to double cross each other.
I told you it was thrilling. After all, it’s always nice (not to mention more interesting) when the bad guys are after each other as well as “the rest of us.”
For more about Steve Berry and his thrilling novels click here.
