#BookReview King's Deception by Steve Berry

The King's Deception by Steve Berry
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Cotton Malone and his fifteen-year-old son, Gary, are headed to Europe. As a favor to his former boss at the Justice Department, Malone agrees to escort a teenage fugitive back to England. But after he is greeted at gunpoint in London, both the fugitive and Gary disappear, and Malone learns that he’s stumbled into a high-stakes diplomatic showdown—an international incident fueled by geopolitical gamesmanship and shocking Tudor secrets.

At its heart is the Libyan terrorist convicted of bombing Pan Am Flight 103, who is set to be released by Scottish authorities for “humanitarian reasons.” An outraged American government objects, but nothing can persuade the British to intervene.

Except, perhaps, Operation King’s Deception.

Run by the CIA, the operation aims to solve a centuries-old mystery, one that could rock Great Britain to its royal foundations.

Blake Antrim, the CIA operative in charge of King’s Deception, is hunting for the spark that could rekindle a most dangerous fire, the one thing that every Irish national has sought for generations: a legal reason why the English must leave Northern Ireland. The answer is a long-buried secret that calls into question the legitimacy of the entire forty-five-year reign of Elizabeth I, the last Tudor monarch, who completed the conquest of Ireland and seized much of its land. But Antrim also has a more personal agenda, a twisted game of revenge in which Gary is a pawn. With assassins, traitors, spies, and dangerous disciples of a secret society closing in, Malone is caught in a lethal bind. To save Gary he must play one treacherous player against another—and only by uncovering the incredible truth can he hope to prevent the shattering consequences of the King’s Deception.

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The book has everything; an old secret, a secret society, American agents, British agents, two old ladies, a thief and of course our hero Cotton Malone smack in the middle. He has a talent for really getting in the way of things. Cotton Malone is on his way to Denmark to celebrate Thanksgiving with his son Gary. But first, he needs to drop off a kid I London that has tried to enter The States with a false passport. And as usual, everything gets fucked up!

Adventure books are something I really, truly enjoyable to read, especially a well-written one with an interesting and almost believable story. Well, the nonstop action is a bit over the top, but adventure book must be fast-paced, or it gets dull. But I loved how I was pulled into the story, how Steve Berry manages to write something so fantastic that one almost could believe it’s true.

The secret in this book, its dynamite (not literally) and if it would be reviled it would have such huge impact on the world that I just can’t believe that those behind trying to bring the secret out in the open would do something so stupid. But pettiness is everywhere. Anyway, it was a great book and if you like adventure book then you should read this one!