Book Review: The Jefferson Key

The Jefferson Key by Steve Berry

Four United States presidents have been assassinated—in 1865, 1881, 1901, and 1963—each murder seemingly unrelated and separated by time.

But what if those presidents were all killed for the same reason: a clause in the United States Constitution—contained within Article 1, Section 8—that would shock Americans?

This question is what faces former Justice Department operative Cotton Malone in his latest adventure.  When a bold assassination attempt is made against President Danny Daniels in the heart of Manhattan, Malone risks his life to foil the killing—only to find himself at dangerous odds with the Commonwealth, a secret society of pirates first assembled during the American Revolution. In their most perilous exploit yet, Malone and Cassiopeia Vitt race across the nation and take to the high seas. Along the way they break a secret cipher originally possessed by Thomas Jefferson, unravel a mystery concocted by Andrew Jackson, and unearth a centuries-old document forged by the Founding Fathers themselves, one powerful enough—thanks to that clause in the Constitution—to make the Commonwealth unstoppable.

(From the publisher).

The Jefferson Key was probably about the 6th or 7th Cotton Malone adventure I'd read by Steve Berry. I kind of love these things. Some women read "chick lit" or other similarly mindless fiction to relax and take a break. I read what I like to call archaeological adventure thrillers. Think Dan Brown's Angels and Demons or The Da Vinci Code. I've found a few other authors that I like as well, notably Will Adams, but Steve Berry is the most prolific and usually a sure bet for me.

The Jefferson Key was actually one of my least favorite Cotton Malone adventures because it failed to live up to its potential. Sure it was action driven, exciting, characters were running from mysterious men with guns and finding long lost treasures, all the elements that one would want in a story like this. My real gripe with it was the Oak Island treasure story, infamous in Canadian pirate lore (google it and spend hours being fascinated by all the theories out there), had so much potential to be a really cool treasure to find. But Berry barely touched on it, and the "treasure" story was too far removed from the main action. The best books in this genre seamlessly integrate the two, leading to the ultimate climax where just when the protagonist finds the treasure vault or other cool secret relic, the baddies all come rushing in with guns blazing, ruining the whole thing, before said protagonist needs to go off to save his new lady friend from certain death. 

But regardless, Cotton Malone continues to be a great character to drive these types of stories. He's the right amount of bad-ass ex-federal operative mixed with antique bookseller and lover of history to pull of this kind of tale. I still think that this makes more sense than Dan Brown's Robert Langdon who gets thrust into situations where he would be in desperate need of sophisticated police training just to stay alive. These books are more fun when you're not worried too much about the main characters.