Steve Berry has a few interesting concepts to anchor his latest thriller The Lincoln Myth (#420), but I do have to admit, it's a bit of slog to get there.
Cotton Malone is back. The Magellan Billet just won't let him retire to peacefully run his bookstore in Copenhagen. He's called in to retrieve an asset because he's physically closer than any other agent, but the promised easy assignment quickly turns into a shooting match. There's trouble afoot in Washington, D.C., and a prominent Mormon Senator appears to be at the root of the problem. What's at stake is the fate of the United States itself. Cotton Malone is roped in despite the fact that with his involvement, the stakes for him will become personal as well.
There was a lot of material in this novel about states' rights, the Constitution, the Union, Lincoln and the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints, commonly known as the Mormons. All of which was necessary to understand the premise behind the peril, but it was presented in a manner that was more didactic than your usual page-turning thriller. I'm sure that was a turn-off for many readers, as was the fact that the various fonts used indicate eighteenth and nineteenth century documents were very difficult to read. Despite all that, if you can bear with it, the threat that was posed at the heart of this novel is only too plausible.
Besides, I found it a good introduction to an area I'll be visiting myself in a couple of weeks. I'm looking forward to visiting Salt Lake City, and kicking myself for not taking the opportunity to visit an LDS temple here before it was dedicated not too long ago. So, in my ledger, the pluses still outweigh the minuses for The Lincoln Myth.
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