Series: Cotton Malone #8
Author: Steve Berry
Pages: 402
Rating: 5/5
Summary:
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.
My Two Cents:
Steve Berry is not a normal author. Is he any good? He's one of the best. The 8th book in the series, The King's Deception is well-paced thriller story that will caught your attention from the first page until the last one. Nevertheless, I feel that this time, the story seems to have a lot of characters i.e villains. Dont get me wrong, I still like the whole scenes, flows and everything. It's hard to hate somthing you already adored for so long, right? There's another thing that intrigued my interest, his relationship with his son after got divorced with his wife. Sometimes, I think it is quite mixed feelings about it, but either way, it just adding up some spices to the story. As a whole, I the writing was tremendous with excellence like always. Not to forget to remind you that a little injections of fascination about Tudor and Elizabethan history behind as the story background. I felt it was brilliant. Any thriller fans will love this for sure.
About the Author
In 2012 and 2013 Steve’s devotion to historic preservation was recognized by the American Library Association, which named Steve it’s spokesperson for National Preservation Week. Among his other honors is the Royden B. Davis Distinguished Author Award, and the 2013 Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Award given by Poets & Writers. Steve was born and raised in Georgia, graduating from the Walter F. George School of Law at Mercer University. He was a trial lawyer for 30 years and held elective office for 14 of those years. He is a founding member of International Thriller Writers—a group of more than 2,000 thriller writers from around the world—and served three years as its co-president.