In Steve Berry's latest, The Jefferson Key (#81), Cotton Malone comes home to the US with the lovely Cassopeia Vitt for company. His former boss, Stephanie Nelle, has sent him an urgent request for help, so why not make it a fun weekend in New York City? The only problem is someone tries to frame him or get him killed in an attempted presidential assasination. It could be anyone from one of the multiple intelligence agencies, or from a shadowy group called the Commonwealth - pirates, one and all. They've worked for the government legally as privateers during the the wars under a little-known provision of the Constitution, but have grown so ambitious they threaten to topple American allies in their pursuit of profits. Meanwhile, the various intelligence agencies are ready to swoop in and destroy them. The Commonwealth has been after the Jefferson Key and its solution that will absolve them from criminal prosecution ever since Andrew Jackson hid it on them. And therein hangs the tale.
The book jacket claims that Cotton's latest adventure is a change of pace for him; he's in the USA, but actually a lot of the action takes place in Nova Scotia's Mahone Bay, long a haunt of pirates. Berry states that the grisly punishments carried out by the Commonwealth are based on factual accounts of pirates, and they are remarkably unpleasant. But still, I read a lot of this book with various choruses from Gilbert & Sullivan's Pirates of Penzance popping into my brain. I just couldn't help it "...The Pirates, the Pirates, oh beware!" "Yes, we're the Pirates, so despair..." So apt for a number of situations. And then, at the end, that missing body... We know who's going to pop up in future books now!
The Jefferson Key itself actually exists. It was a code tool developed for Jefferson by his friend Patterson. It worked so well that the key was not solved until 2009 with the help of supercomputers. Have to admire the genius of Jefferson and his cadre of friends. Reading about the damage done to Monticello while Cotton Malone visited made me cringe. But you know his record with World Heritage sites... Seriously, Monticello is a beautiful spot and well worth a visit if you can possibly do it. I wouldn't miss Madison's or Washington's homes, either, if you're in that neck of the woods.
I enjoyed this as summer reading where I learned a bit more about American history, but I was jarred by the awkwardness of the language in a number of spots. Either the construction of the sentence was off a bit, or the choice of words could have been better. You would think that good editing would have picked these up. It would have greatly improved the smooth flow of the book. Just my opinion.
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