By: Steve Berry
Synopsis
Pulitzer Prize winning investigative journalist Tom Sagan has written hard-hitting articles from hot spots around the world. But when a controversial report from a war-torn region is exposed as a fraud, his professional reputation crashes and burns. Now he lives in virtual exile – haunted by bad decisions and the shocking truth he can never prove: that his downfall was a deliberate act of sabotage by an unknown enemy. But before Sagan can end his torment with the squeeze of a trigger, fate intervenes in the form of an enigmatic stranger with a request that cannot be ignored.
Zachariah Simon has the look of a scholar, the soul of a scoundrel, and the zeal of a fanatic. He also has Tom Sagan’s estranged daughter at his mercy. Simon desperately wants something only Sagan can supply: the key to a 500-year-old mystery, treasure with explosive political significance in the modern world. For both Simon and Sagan the stakes are high, the goal intensely personal, the consequences of opposing either man potentially catastrophic. On a perilous quest from Florida to Vienna to Prague and finally to the mountains of Jamaica, the two men square off in a dangerous game. Along the way, both of their lives will be altered – and everything we know about Christopher Columbus will change.
My Thoughts
I enjoy Steve Berry’s novels, and have been reading them for years, but got off track and fell behind. I like the way he weaves historical facts into his stories and causes you to question what you think you know about history. You can’t help but go “what if?” I also appreciate that he separates fact from fiction at the end of every novel.
While the twists and turns this story took were interesting, they were not entirely unpredictable. It wasn’t hard to see what was probably coming next. That didn’t take away from the enjoyment of the story, it just means I wasn’t left surprised by much that happened. The main protagonist was ok. I liked him well enough. I felt he had learned from, and regretted, his mistakes. To me, this made him believable and had me rooting for him. His daughter, however, was an annoying brat who thought she knew everything. I couldn’t stand her (which may have been by design). The stunt she pulls in the beginning that gets her father involved in the first place is inexcusable. She comes around by the end, but I still did not like her at all. While this might not be the best of Berry’s novels, it’s an enjoyable read and I look forward to continuing to catch up on the rest of them.