The Kaiser’s Web

I finished listening to The Kaiser’s Web by Steve Berry. It is the sixteenth book of the Cotton Malone book series.

Big Warning: There is some violence.

In this book. Cotton finds himself in the middle of German politics. A woman who gives someone information to one of the German candidates for Chancellor is poisoned. The person who is responsible for the death is the other candidate. That candidate wants to bait the other to find documents that would make the other one look bad and he would win. Only he didn’t count on an old woman to keep her word and Cotton finds out the truth and the truth actually makes both candidates look bad. In the end, the race for chancellor is put on hold after the truth comes to light. It was a sad ending, but a good ending.

I loved this book. Back to Narnia, I’m reading next The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis.

The Warsaw Protocol

I finished listening to Warsaw Protocol by Steve Berry. It is the latest Cotton Malone book. There are sixteen books in the book series.

Warning: there is a lot of violence.

In this book, Cotton Malone is in Bruges, Belgium. He is supposed to attend a book auction. But he is sightseeing first. He is in a church and witnesses a robbery in action. It is a robbery of a holy relic. He promises the priest that he would get the relic back. Only he gets arrested for crashing a boat while chasing the thieves. Luckily Stephanie was there to help him out. The robbery was part of something bigger and that’s why she was there in Bruges. There were other relics stolen in order to be part of an auction of some information being sold to the highest bidder. The information is of the president of Poland’s past. The U.S. wants that info so missiles can be placed in Poland.  Other countries want the info for different reasons. Cotton really didn’t want to be involved, but he ends up being involved because he wants to save Stephanie’s job and the Russians are making him be involved. So the deputy of the US government and Cotton go to the auction. But things turn ugly and the Russians kill most of the people there. A Polish agent kills the guy who started the auction and she takes back one of the relics that was stolen. The Russians think that the information was gone for good since the guy who knew where it was hidden is now dead, but someone knew where the info was hidden. Cotton also found out where the info was hidden. The Russians do get the info, but Cotton gets the info back by killing the Russian. He ends up giving the info to the president of Poland who burns it.

I loved this book. The next Cotton Malone book is coming out in February (right before my birthday). I can’t wait. Now I’m going to listen to The Stand by Stephen King.

The Devil’s Due

I finished reading The Devil’s Due by Steve Berry. It is a short story of the Cotton Malone book series. There are seventeen books in the Cotton Malone book series.

Big Warning: there is a little bit of violence.

In this very short story, Cotton is asked to go to see a president of a small country.  The president of that country offers Cotton a gift. The gift is Bin Laden. He wanted Cotton to hand him over to the US alone. But Cotton was scared to do that alone so he asked for help in doing that. But the people he hands him over to isn’t who they say they are and Cotton finds out later on that they are subcontractors and they killed and burned Bin Laden. In the end he pledges to get the subcontractors.

I sorta liked this short story. Now I’m reading The Columbus Affair by Steve Berry.

The Tudor Plot

I finished reading the short story The Tudor Plot by Steve Berry. It is book 7.5 of the Cotton Malone book series.  There are seventeen books in the main Cotton Malone book series.

Big Warning: there is some violence and a hint of incest.

In this book, Cotton Malone is in England to attend a trial of some terrorists. But before he could actually attend the trial is asked to go with some men. They take him to see the Queen. The Queen asks Cotton to look into a personal matter involving a plot against one of the princes. A man had said mysterious about King Arthur and that one of the princes could be in danger. Plus there was a media attack against the heir to the throne which none of wanted to be king anyway. The media attack was run by a man named Lord Yourstone who took over a publication to hide the fact that his son is sterile and to use the media to expose the heir’s affairs. Lord Yourstone had a plan to make his son’s wife queen by getting rid of the two princes. He even tried to kill one of the princes. He also was trying to find the legendary Arthur’s grave. Cotton did stop the attempt on the prince with the help of an MI6 agent, but the agent was working with Yourstone. He killed Yourstone’s son and killed Lord Yourstone. Cotton did find some artifacts of Arthur.

I did like this short story. Now I’m reading The Devil’s Due by Steve Berry. It is another short story of the Cotton Malone book series.

The Admiral’s Mark

I finished reading The Admiral’s Mark by Steve Berry.  It is a short story of the Cotton Malone book series. It’s a prequel of The Columbus Affair (which I will be reading later). There are seventeen books in the main book series so far.

Big Warning: there is a little bit of violence.

In this short story/prequel, Cotton Malone’s brother-in-law dies. He drown in Haiti. It was recorded as an accident. But Cotton’s wife (now ex) orders him to find out what really happened to his brother-in-law.  He finds out that his brother-in-law had send his wife a mysterious message. Cotton goes to his brother-in-law’s house and someone is there too. Two men are searching too. When he goes to Haiti, he finds out those two men are there too. He snoops in their room and finds a pamphlet of an auction about a book. Then two more men grab Cotton. These new men are with the Israeli government. The Israelis are after the two men Cotton saw in his brother-in-law’s house. Cotton goes to the auction and wins the book. He learns that the book and the mysterious message are connected. They are about Christopher Columbus. A page was ripped out of the book. Cotton is ordered to find that missing page. He does find it and he hands over to the Israeli government.

I did like this short story. Now I’m reading The Tudor Plot by Steve Berry. It is another short story of the Cotton Malone book series.

The Balkan Escape

Yesterday the audiobook of The Balkan Escape by Steve Berry came available on Overdrive. It’s a very short short story.  It is the first Cassiopeia Vitt short story.

Warning: there is a little bit of violence.

In this short story, Henrik Thorvaldsen (miss him. I wish he wasn’t killed off later on.) asks Cassiopeia Vitt to go into the Bulgaria’s mountains in search of some artifacts of a late king. She does, but she caught by some Russians. The Russians put bombs in the caves. One of the Russians though helps Cassiopeia out and shows her where the tomb of the king is. They both make it out alive.

I did like this short story. Now I’m going to read After the Funeral by Agatha Christie

The Museum of Mysteries

I finished listening to The Museum of Mysteries by Steve Berry and M.J. Rose. It is a short story of Cassiopeia Vitt. It is book 13.5 of the Cotton Malone books series.

Warning: there is a little bit of violence and a hint of incest.

In this book, Cassiopeia visits a old friend named Nicodeme. Nicodeme is a dealer in artifacts. While there, she sees a rose wood box. She asks about the box and Nicodeme tells her that someone has an appointment to look at the box. He says there are bottles of some kind of herbs and other things in the box. Behind his shop, Nicodeme has all kinds of artifacts in a tunnel called the museum of mysteries. No one knows about it, or the puzzles to get in the museum of mysteries. The tunnel was once an escape for witches (healers).  The guy who was coming to look at the box arrives and asks for a price for the box. Nicodeme doesn’t want to sell the box. So the guy just steals the box. Nicodeme tells Cassiopeia to get the box back. So she goes out running after the guy in the rain. When she does catch up  with the guy, he tells her that the box  belongs to his family. Someone had put the box up for auction without his knowledge. He was trying find out who it was. Cassiopeia asks to view one of the bottles labels on the bottom and then suddenly they were attacked. When she was hit, she accidently unscrewed the bottle and breathe what was it in the bottle and she had a vivid vision of a woman who was a healer (healers were called witches back in the 13th century). When Cassiopeia came to, she finds the thief barely alive so she runs to get help. But she returns the thief is gone. So Cassiopeia goes back in time again with a vision.  Then later she goes back in the past again and learns the healer’s name as Morgan Le Fay. She finally tells Nicodeme about the visions and he tells her that they are past memories. He also asks her to find the box. She goes a perfumer who tells her more about the bottles that were in the box. Then she gets a message from the thief who tells her he thinks his brother was behind the attack. He thinks his brother wants the box to go back in the past again or his brother could use the box as a political gain in a election.  Cassiopeia asks a police officer for help in finding the brother and the box. The thief and Cassiopeia goes to the politician’s house. Cassiopeia sneaks in and finds a secret red room (sex room).  It is revealed that the brother was working for the other side and was going to expose a sex tape of the female politician.  Cassiopeia goes back in time again which helps her figure out how to handle the situation about the brother. She uses some of the bottles and the solution makes the brother forget what has happened the past few hours.

I did like this book. Now I’m going to read Mary Poppins in the Park by P.L. Travers.

The Lake of Learning

I finished listening to The Lake of Learning by Steve Berry and M. J. Rose. It is short story of Cassiopeia Vitt.  It is book 14.5 of the Cotton Malone book series.

Big Warning: there is a little bit of violence.

In this short story, Cassiopeia Vitt is still building her castle. One of her crew found something interesting hidden in the dirt. They carefully dig it up. It is a huge golden chest. Inside the chest is book wrapped in cloth. The book is from the 13th to 14th century. It is called The Book of Hours which is monk prayer book. A reporter takes pictures of the book and posts then online. Then a billionaire comes to Cassiopeia to buy the book. She doesn’t want to sell the book, so the billionaire takes some action against her family’s company.  A woman also wants the book and she tries to steal the book. She wants the book because it could lead her to the truth about her religion (Catharism). Supposedly the book is map to the lake of learning (map to the light).  Cassiopeia finds an expert on Catharism who is also the ex-wife of the billionaire.  She lets the billionaire’s ex-wife look at the book. They discover where the map leads to and go searching for the spot. The billionaire goes after them. He has the intent to kill his ex-wife. They do find another chest which holds the bible of the Cathars.

I did like this book. Now I’m going to listen to The Museum of Mysteries by Steve Berry and M. J. Rose. It is the Cassiopeia Vitt short story before this one.

The Malta Exchange

I finished listening to The Malta Exchange by Steve Berry. It is the fourteenth book of the Cotton Malone. There are fifteen books so far in the Cotton Malone book series.

Big Warning: there is some violence. Big Warning 2: there is a major twist.

In this book, Cotton is asked by the British Intelligence to steal some letters from a guy who was going to sell the letters to them. The letters were between Winston Churchhill and Benito Mussolini. Cotton goes to the seller’s house to discover a bear is in the room where the letters are hidden. Meanwhile two other people are there and they want those letters. They kills the seller. Cotton gets rid of the bear and finds one of the people and kills him, but the letters are gone.  Meanwhile, Luke Daniels is on mission to find out what a Cardinal is up to. The Cardinal wants the letters and a document that Mussolini had supposedly hidden. The Cardinal wants to use the hidden document to become pope (who is dying). Luke messes up the mission and the Malta Intelligence agency  offers to help. Cotton and Luke Daniels meet up to find the hidden document. Then a big major twist happens which surprised me. Cotton does take the bad guy down.

I loved this book. I’m waiting on the latest Cotton Malone audiobook The Warshaw Protocol which I have on hold on Overdrive. While I wait, I’m going to read 4:50 from Paddington by Agatha Christie.

Bishop’s Pawn

I finished listening to Bishop’s Pawn by Steve Berry.  It is the thirteen book of the Cotton Malone book series. There are fifteen books so far in the main book series.

Big Warning: there is some violence.

In this book, Cotton Malone tells about his first mission as a intelligence officer. He was asked by Stephanie Nelle to retrieve a rare coin that was at the bottom of the ocean. But the case he was at the bottom of the ocean. He almost gets killed down there and he finds out the case holds documents. He is asked not to read the documents, but he does anyway. He learns the documents deal with the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. The rare coin is payment of the files.  He tries to save a man, his daughter, and her husband which becomes a failure. Cotton ends up learning the secret that lead to the assassination and he ends up deciding to keep that secret a secret.

I loved this book. I do think Cotton should have kept the evidence. Now I’m reading Mary Poppins Opens the Door by P. L. Travers.