Steve Berry’s latest Cotton Malone adventure, The Lincoln Myth, is interesting on a couple of levels, First, as always with Berry’s writing we have a well written and continually interesting novel. Second a lot of the documents referenced and the things that happen are plucked from the historical record. This makes the “Writer’s Notes”, something I generally ignore, very interesting as Berry details which items in the book are real, which are fiction and which are a mix of the two. For those unfamiliar with the Cotton Malone series, Malone is a retired CIA operative who now operates a bookstore in Copenhagen Denmark but gets pulled back into action by his former employer. Here we have a current-day rouge element in the Mormon Church plotting something with the potential to bring down the United States. So I suppose you are wondering what could our 16th President have to do with something happening in the 21st century? This gets to the guts of the story and I will not spoil it for you. Mix in the current President of the United States, his nephew, Malone’s sometime Lover, a ride for Malone in a Mach 2 fighter plane, an operation in Europe, the colorful aforementioned rouge element and assorted mayhem resulting in a highly recommended read. And if you read the book don’t miss the Writer’s Notes.

After reading Robert Bidinotto’s first book, Hunter: A Thriller, I looked forward to his second offering Bad Deeds that once again features Dylan Hunter in a starring role. Hunter, a freelance investigative journalist with a past, mixes a Little of characters in other authors work – think Lee Child’s Jack Reacher, Vince Flynn’s Mitch Rapp and Stuart Woods’ Stone Barrington.. Here we have an ex-CIA agent that now works outside of any organization battling injustices. The storyline follows Hunter’s fight with a well-funded fringe environmental group bent on shutting down fracking operations. The source of the funding and the political intrigue will probably not surprise you but the way Bidinotto ties it together has more than a couple of twists.   Being independently wealthy Hunter is not constrained by financial concerns as he forges ahead. He adopts, and switches between identities and surrounds himself with a few interesting sidekicks – in this book a computer genius nicknamed Monk. Add to this a girlfriend, Ann Woods, who is still with the CIA and you end up with a very tightly written work and one that is once again highly recommended.

To save you the trouble of searching for my earlier review here is a repost of my December 2011 Review of Bidinotto’s First Novel

Generally speaking I shy away from first-time novelists but after reading the “Click to Look Inside” feature on the Amazon website I decided to give Hunter: A Thriller a try. While the author, Robert Bidinotto, is a first-time novelist he is an accomplished journalist and author and this work clearly demonstrates his skill. The protagonist in Hunter: A Thriller is Dylan Hunter a freelance investigative journalist with a past. As the story progresses the many sides of Dylan Hunter unfold in some interesting and unexpected ways. Fans of Lee Child’s Jack Reacher and Vince Flynn’s Mitch Rapp will find a lot to like here. The supporting cast of characters, even some of the minor characters, is colorful and well developed by the author. Wait until you read the description of Wonk, Hunter’s researcher. Hunter’s developing love interest, and the other principal character in the novel Ann Woods, is a CIA agent making for some interesting tie-ins. Another key character, Alexandria Virginia police Detective Cronin’s parting comment to Hunter “Stay the hell away from Alexandria” might provide more insight into the interplay here.