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 Hardcover edition.
"Well, not my thing, usually. Kept me compulsively reading in much the same way your gaze has to follow the hit tennis ball. Potboiling cliffhanger in its most base form, but that's what works, right? Characters are essentially just names; you root for the good guys because they're the good guys--and so on. Again, like following a hit ball. You hate yourself for reading, but it's a "I wonder what happens next?" connect-the-dots. But you rate it for what it is, for what it attempts to be, not because you want it to be another Silence of the Lambs meets Indiana Jones, and it fails miserably. Sort of like NCIS meets Dan Brown, except NCIS has humor and actual tension, and Angels & Demons and Da Vinci were much more interesting, and actually written much better. This book is like ex-ballplayer Jeff Frye, who when he played made you think that if this guy can play baseball, then any common Joe can, even me. Here, if Steve Berry can make the bestseller lists, then I can, too. Which is ludicrous, of course, but it makes you feel that way.
Having said all this, I have to give it 4 stars because I did compulsively read on and flip the pages, and that's the whole point, right??? Who cares why I did it, just that I did it, right? The book gets sold, and the publishing company and author get paid either way. I read on knowing that I had better things to do, but...Well, you get the idea. And don't let the title fool you: It's not much about Jefferson, or a key to anything, or even two pages that are the McGuffin...Bleh."
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Steven (4 out of 5 stars)