**NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - A Cotton Malone adventure involving a
flaw in the United States Constitution, a mystery about Abraham Lincoln,
and a political issue that's as explosive as it is timely--not only in
Malone's world, but in ours
**
September 1861: All is not as it seems. With these cryptic words,
a shocking secret passed down from president to president comes to rest
in the hands of Abraham Lincoln. And as the first bloody clashes of the
Civil War unfold, Lincoln alone must decide how best to use this
volatile knowledge: save thousands of American lives, or keep the young
nation from being torn apart forever?
The present: In Utah, the fabled remains of Mormon pioneers whose
nineteenth-century expedition across the desert met with a murderous end
have been uncovered. In Washington, D.C., the official investigation of
an international entrepreneur, an elder in the Mormon church, has
sparked a political battle between the White House and a powerful United
States senator. In Denmark, a Justice Department agent, missing in
action, has fallen into the hands of a dangerous zealot--a man driven by
divine visions to make a prophet's words reality. And in a matter of a
few short hours, Cotton Malone has gone from quietly selling books at
his shop in Denmark to dodging bullets in a high-speed boat chase.
All it takes is a phone call from his former boss in Washington, and
suddenly the ex-agent is racing to rescue an informant carrying critical
intelligence. It's just the kind of perilous business that Malone has
been trying to leave behind, ever since he retired from the Justice
Department. But once he draws enemy blood, Malone is plunged into a
deadly conflict--a constitutional war secretly set in motion more than
two hundred years ago by America's Founding Fathers.
From the streets of Copenhagen to the catacombs of Salzburg to the
rugged mountains of Utah, the grim specter of the Civil War looms as a
dangerous conspiracy gathers power. Malone risks life, liberty, and his
greatest love in a race for the truth about Abraham Lincoln--while the
fate of the United States of America hangs in the balance.
Praise for Steve Berry and his Cotton Malone series
"In Malone, [Steve] Berry has created a classic, complex
hero."--USA Today
"Malone, a hero with a personal stake in the proceedings, is a welcome
respite from the cold, calculating superspies who litter the
genre."--Entertainment Weekly
"Steve Berry gets better and better with each new book."--The
Huffington Post
"Savvy readers . . . cannot go wrong with Cotton Malone."--Library
Journal
"Berry raises this genre's stakes."--The New York Times
"I love this guy."--#1 New York Times bestselling author Lee Child
