Product Description

As a child, former Justice Department agent Cotton Malone was told his father died in a submarine disaster in the North Atlantic, but now he wants the full story and asks his ex-boss, Stephanie Nelle, to secure the military files. What he learns stuns him: His father’s sub was a secret nuclear vessel lost on a highly classified mission beneath the ice shelves of Antarctica.

But Malone isn’t the only one after the truth.

Twin sisters Dorothea Lindauer and Christl Falk are fighting for the fortune their mother has promised to whichever of them discovers what really became of their father–who died on the same submarine that Malone’s father captained.

The sisters know something Malone doesn’t: Inspired by strange clues discovered in Charlemagne’s tomb, the Nazis explored Antarctica before the Americans, as long ago as 1938. Now Malone discovers that cryptic journals penned in “the language of heaven,” inscrutable conundrums posed by an ancient historian, and the ill-fated voyage of his father are all tied to a revelation of immense consequence for humankind.

In an effort to ensure that this explosive information never rises to the surface, Langford Ramsey, an ambitious navy admiral, has begun a brutal game of treachery, blackmail, and assassination. As Malone embarks on a dangerous quest with the sisters–one that leads them from an ancient German cathedral to a snowy French citadel to the unforgiving ice of Antarctica–he will finally confront the shocking truth of his father’s death and the distinct possibility of his own.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #32517 in Books
• Published on: 2008-12-02
• Released on: 2008-12-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 528 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780345485793
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. In bestseller Berry's fourth thriller to feature ex–Justice Department agent Cotton Malone (after The Venetian Betrayal), Malone embarks on a search for answers about his father, Capt. Forrest Malone, after learning that instead of dying in 1971 in a nuclear sub accident in the North Atlantic, his father actually died while on a secret submarine mission to the Antarctic. Meanwhile, bad guy Adm. Langford Ramsey schemes to become the next ranking officer of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The two story lines merge as a group led by Malone races to Antarctica, where they find a strange underground city belonging to the Aryans, an advanced race who inhabited the earth at the dawn of our own civilization. A meticulous researcher, Berry carefully integrates such elements as Charlemagne, Nazis, ancient manuscripts, historical puzzles and scientific surprises into the plot. Those who relish suspense in the Da Vinci Code vein will snap this one up, the best yet in the series. 10-city author tour. (Dec.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From School Library Journal
Starred Review. Berry outdoes himself in his latest Cotton Malone adventure (after The Venetian Betrayal). Using his connections in the federal government, Cotton asks to see a classified file that details the mission that resulted in his father's death. He knew his father died on a submarine but none of the shocking details about where or why he died. But Cotton is not the only person who wants this file, and they kill to get it. Nazi missions to the Antarctic, ancient societies, and a valuable artifact from Charlemagne's tomb all play key roles as Malone uncovers the truth. So much is going on that there is enough material for two good books, let alone one great one. Mixed in with the complicated action, Berry finds the time to explore the characters as well, making this his most personal and best book to date. For all fiction collections. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 8/08.]—Jeff Ayers, Seattle P.L.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Berry’s Cotton Malone series is beginning to develop a case of been there, done that. In this fourth installment, the globe-trotting ex–government agent turned bookseller is caught up in the mystery of Charlemagne, the eighth-century empire builder whose tomb is somehow linked to an early Nazi exploration of Antarctica and, even stranger, to the death of Cotton’s own father. The story follows the by-now overly familiar course: Cotton is thrust immediately into life-threatening danger and spends the rest of the novel evading pursuers and pursuing the solution to a historical puzzle. There are colorful bad guys, likable good guys, and plenty of action scenes (it’s a mystery why no one has turned these books into Indiana Jones–like movies). As in previous episodes, the dialogue ranges from graceful to clunky, and the frequent chunks of historical background are worked into the narrative in ways that vary from seamless to clumsy. This is a solid action thriller that will appeal to the author’s fans, but how long Berry can prolong the series without tinkering even a bit with his formula is the real question here. --David Pitt

Customer Reviews

Suspense, yes; but also new heights of implausibility
I love a good thriller, and there just aren't enough of them around. So I was thrilled to discover Steve Berry's early novels. I enjoyed the first one or two of his Cotton Malone books as well. But as he has moved from one book to the next, the body count seems to rise, the characterizations have become more stilted, the action choppier, and the plots have tumbled into territory that become laugh-out-loud implausible. (Sure, Berry provides detailed author's notes showing exactly how he develops his plots, and the historical clues that he relies on, but the real test isn't whether he can make a case for it in the author's note, but whether it feels 'natural' to someone reading.)

I would probably have given this book a 3.5 star rating if the system allowed it. But the core plot device -- the quest in Antarctica for a mysterious superior civilization that preceeded the Mayans, the ancient Egyptians, et. al., that had a connection with Charlemagne, and that evil forces (in the person of a manipulative U.S. Admiral, Langord Ramsey) want to keep secret for their own reasons -- is just too strained for four stars.

Nor is the writing good enough to carry the book over the four-star rating threshold. It's choppy, a la James Patterson, with 94 chapters in only 500 pages, a lot of one-sentence paragraphs, and 8-word long sentences. The perspective keeps jumping back and forth between antiquarian book dealer Cotton Malone and his former intelligence boss, Stephanie Nelle. Each time a gun fires in one location, the action immediately jumps back to the other protagonist. These are all tools that all suspense writers employ, but again, they work best when the reader doesn't realize that they are being used at all. The only times where the reader can really settle into the action are those during which Berry's protagonists settle down to some serious exposition. "Early Sumerian texts... talk repeatedly of tall, god-like people who lived among them," says one professor (the target of an assassin hired by the evil admiral).

Sometimes, less is more in a good thriller. Cramming Charlemagne, the Nazis, a vanished experimental submarine, a quest for a mysterious lost civilization, a competition between two twin sisters for the truth behind their father's death (he and hero Cotton Malone's father died in the same submarine accident) and the homicidal admiral in a single book left me limp with exhaustion. I was so distracted that I kept having to page back to remind myself of some fact or plot twist. I even lost track of the body count (which is pretty substantial.)

Berry, early in his writing, focused on more plausible but still exotic quests: for the Amber Room, for the great library of Alexandria, the secrets of the Templars. In his last outing, the quest was for a magical spring that could cure HIV/AIDs, and the evil character was a female dictator of a central Asian nation. Don't ask me to swallow too many implausible plot/character twists in a single book...

All this said... I have still given the book three stars because Berry has a knack for what makes a good thriller. When Malone finally heads off to Antarctica, you can't close the book up. You want to know how all the pieces link together. And it's a good enough yarn to keep you occupied on a long plane ride, or when there's nothing you want to watch on television. So it fills a certain niche -- the kind of book you can pick up, read and then forget about. But only a Steve Berry devotee should be ready to pay the full cover price.

A final note about the final pages (I don't view it as a spoiler because it has nothing to do with the main plot); to my mind, it's kind of tacky to start the next book (which will probably not come out for another year) in the closing pages of the current one by having your hero creep out, Beretta in hand, to investigate a possible intruder. Since when did the TV cliffhanger phenomenon show up in books??

This one is an out-of-the-park homer
Steve Berry does it all right in The Charlemagne Pursuit. He starts right, in the pulse-pounding submarine accident that triggers the action in the book; he ends right, with late-night antics about to begin; he keeps his story moving at a fast clip in between, with love, murder, betrayal, revenge, more betrayal, hate, then love again.

It's a pleasure to give yourself over to a plot-driven thrill ride of a book at least four or five times a year. I couldn't make a diet of them myself, because they take so much out of me. At least the good ones do, and this is very much a good one. Cotton Malone, our main character, is a man with a bitter past: A lost father, a failed marriage, a career he sacrificed what he now knows is too much to keep. His emotional landscape is a frozen tundra, or so he wants to believe, and he works hard to sustain that fantasy for more than half this book. Why, then, is it such a pleasure to read his adventures? Because Cotton Malone's chill is real, ladies and gents; because we're clued in to his brokenness and not required to experience it with him as it happens, but asked to believe it happened as it's told, most current readers and reviewers seem to be dismissive of the character's reality.

This is puzzling. Cotton Malone develops as a rounded and complex character during the course of this novel. The knock on thrillers is that the characters are simply cut-outs that move through the paces the author has designed for your entertainment, and I have certainly read my share of thrillers that fit this description. The Charlemagne Pursuit is not one of them, and neither was The Venetian Betrayal. Steve Berry writes a whacking good story, and he tells it through the actions of well-drawn characters. His villains are motivated by things that make sense in their world, his heroes are likewise people whose reasons to do what they're doing are consistent with the story we're told about them; if readers are not satisfied by the author's technique, I suggest that the fault could easily be said to reside in them, not in Mr. Berry's writing.

This is a very satisfying read, and Cotton Malone makes my list of people I'm glad I met in 2008.

3.5 stars, too many plots and characters, interesting subject matter
The Charlemagne Pursuit by Steve Berry held a lot of promise as an interesting story. Coming in at just over 500 pages, and expecting that the main character Malone would go to Antarctica, I was very intrigued. But, despite an interesting premise, picturesque settings including the Biltmore Estate, Europe, and Antarctica, and being the third book in the series, I just didn't feel the book lived up to what it could have been.

The quasi-historical portions of the book were serious thought-provokers, that being the primary reason I was interested in reading this book. I love historical fiction as well as alternate history. I felt far too much of the book was devoted to the "plot" of a mother pitting her daughters against each other and Washington politics. The characters were underdeveloped, which was surprising considering how long this book was. But, with too many plots going and too many characters the author was hindered in making any character or any plot seem realistic.

The final twenty percent of the book is riveting. That made all the time I spent reading this book worthwhile. The chapters are short, most being only 3-5 pages, so if you only have a few minutes here and there to read throughout the day, and you enjoy thrillers, I would recommend this book to you.