The Columbus Affair by Steve Berry – The publication of a new Steve Berry book is always cause for celebration in my little world, and this new offering did not disappoint.
Berry, known for his rough and tumble, action-packed Cotton Malone series, moves in a slightly different direction here and introduces a whole new cast of characters who take part in an adventure every bit as steeped in history and full of action as Berry’s other offerings.
We meet Thomas Sagan, disgraced reporter, just as he about to end his life. His suicide is prevented by Zacariah Simon, a man who appears at Sagan’s window holding a picture of Sagan’s estranged daughter. We soon learn that Simon has Ally captive and will kill her if Sagan doesn’t agree to exhume his father’s body to retrieve something that was buried with him years before. We soon discover that Sagan’s father, and now Sagan, is the Levite, a man entrusted with the greatest secret in Jewish history. Berry immediately lets the reader know that all is not as it appears as he begins to weave a tale of Christopher Columbus and an ancient treasure stolen from the Jews when the second temple was destroyed.
Moving the action from Florida, to Austria, to Jamaica, Berry grips your attention with intriguing bits of history interwoven with his own imaginative elements and, as usual, delivers a tightly plotted narrative peopled with interesting, well-drawn characters. I always want to research something that I read about in a Berry book, and this time it is the Temple treasure. That urge to learn more about what I’ve read in a novel doesn’t happen all the time, which is why I look forward to each new Steve Berry book.
This one is highly recommended.
It's All About the Book 