Showing results by author "Steve Berry" in All Categories

Cotton Malone, one-time top operative for the U.S. Justice Department, is enjoying his quiet new life as an antiquarian book dealer in Copenhagen when an unexpected call to action reawakens his hair-trigger instincts—and plunges him back into the cloak-and-dagger world he thought he’d left behind.

A provocative thriller posing a dangerous question: what if federal income tax is illegal? The 16th Amendment to the Constitution legalized federal income tax, but what if there were problems with the 1913 ratification of that amendment? Problems that call into question decades of tax collecting and could even bring down the US economy?

The Knights of the Golden Circle was the largest and most dangerous clandestine organization in American history. It amassed billions in stolen gold and silver, all buried in hidden caches across the United States. Since 1865 treasure hunters have searched, but little of that immense wealth has ever been found. Now, 160 years later, two factions of what remains of the Knights of the Golden Circle want that lost treasure - one to spend it for their own ends, the other to preserve it.

The explosive new Cotton Malone thriller by international best seller Steve Berry. People say the Cold War is coming back. For some it never went away. Shot down over Siberia in what was to be a simple meet-and-greet mission, ex-Justice Department agent Cotton Malone is forced into a fight for survival against Aleksandr Zorin, whose loyalty to the former Soviet Union has festered for decades into an intense hatred of the United States.

Former Justice Department operative, Cotton Malone, has been asked to assist the Swiss guard with determining whether Cardinal Jason Richter has engaged in bribery and theft. It's a favor for Stephanie Nelle, once his boss at the Magellan Billet, who is doing a favor for the Vatican. But nothing is as it seems. Three hundred thousand euros are found, a Swiss Guardsman is murdered, and a killer sets his sights on both Cotton and the cardinal.

On the 50th anniversary of the death of Martin Luther King comes the explosive new thriller from international best seller Steve Berry that sees Cotton Malone return to his very first case. History notes that the ugly feud between J. Edgar Hoover and Martin Luther King Jr., marked by years of illegal surveillance and the accumulation of secret files, ended on April 4, 1968 when King was assassinated by James Earl Ray.

Former Justice Department operative Cotton Malone wakes to find an intruder in his Copenhagen bookshop: an American Secret Service agent with assassins on his heels. Narrowly surviving a ferocious firefight, the two journey to the secluded estate of Malone’s friend Henrik Thorvaldsen. The wily Danish tycoon has uncovered the insidious plans of the Paris Club, a cabal of multimillionaires bent on manipulating the global economy.

Life is good for Atlanta judge Rachel Cutler. She loves her job, loves her kids, and remains civil to her ex-husband, Paul. But everything changes when her father, a man who survived the horrors of World War II, dies under strange circumstances and leaves behind clues to a secret he kept his entire life...a secret about something called the Amber Room.

Cotton Malone retired from the high-risk world of elite operatives to lead the life of a rare-book dealer. But his quiet existence is shattered when he receives an anonymous e-mail: " You have something I want. You're the only person on earth who knows where to find it. If I don't hear from you, you will be childless." His ex-wife confirms that their teenage son has been kidnapped, and it becomes clear that those responsible will stop at nothing to get what they want: the lost library of Alexandria.

There is a secret from our history - 500 years old - startling in its revelations and devastating in its political impact. A secret that has, thankfully, stayed hidden. Until now. Former Justice Department agent Cotton Malone travels to England and finds himself caught in a dark conspiracy born long ago, in the time of the Tudors. Now both the CIA and MI6 seem to be competing to uncover the mystery, and for Malone, supposedly on holiday with his son, Gary, it's not just the action which comes thick and fast.

The tomb of China’s First Emperor, guarded by an underground army of terra-cotta warriors, has remained sealed for more than 2,000 years. Though it’s regarded as one of the greatest archaeological sites in the world, the Chinese government won’t allow anyone to open it.

After narrowly escaping incineration in a devastating fire that consumes a Danish museum, Cotton Malone - former Justice Department agent turned rare-book dealer - learns from his friend, the beguiling adventurer Cassiopeia Vitt, that the blaze was neither an accident nor an isolated incident. As part of a campaign of arson intended to mask a far more diabolical design, buildings across Europe are being devoured by infernos of unnatural strength. Born from the ashes is a new Eastern European nation whose ruthless leader will soon draw Cotton into an intense geopolitical chess game.

The Ghent Altarpiece is the most violated work of art in the world. Thirteen times it has been vandalised, dismantled or stolen. Why? What secrets does it hold? Enter UNESCO investigator Nicholas Lee, who works for the United Nations' Cultural Liaison and Investigative Office (CLIO). Nick's job is to protect the world's cultural artefacts—anything and everything from countless lesser-known objects to national treasures.

September 1861: All is not as it seems. With these cryptic words, a shocking secret passed down from president to president comes to rest in the hands of Abraham Lincoln. And as the first bloody clashes of the Civil War unfold, Lincoln alone must decide how best to use this volatile knowledge: save thousands of American lives or keep the young nation from being torn apart forever?

1945. In the waning months of World War II, Japan hid vast quantities of gold and other stolen valuables in boobytrapped underground caches all across the Philippines. By 1947 some of that loot was recovered, not by treasure hunters, but by the United States government, which told no one about the find. Present day. Retired Justice Department operative, Cotton Malone, is in Switzerland doing a favor for a friend. But what was supposed to be a simple operation turns violen.

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....

First Thrills will include never-before-published stories by New York Times best-selling authors including Lee Child, Stephen Coonts, Jeffery Deaver, Heather Graham, Joan Johnston, John Lescroart, Alex Kava and Deb Carlin, Michael Palmer (with Daniel James Palmer), Karin Slaughter, and Wendi Corsi Staub.

Two candidates are vying to become chancellor of Germany. One is a patriot who has served for many years, the other a usurper, stoking the flames of nationalistic hate. Both harbour secrets, but only one knows the truth about the other. Everything turns on the events of one fateful day - 30th April 1945 - and what happened deep beneath Berlin in the Fürherbunker.

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.

King Ludwig II of Bavaria was an enigmatic figure who was deposed in 1886, mysteriously drowning three days later. Eccentric to the point of madness, history tells us that in the years before he died Ludwig engaged in a worldwide search for a new kingdom, one separate, apart, and in lieu of Bavaria. A place he could retreat into and rule as he wished. But a question remains: did he succeed?