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jeffburns 's review for:
The Venetian Betrayal
by Steve Berry
adventurous
fast-paced
The Venetian Betrayal. Steve Berry. Ballantine Books, 2007. 496 pages. Book 3 of 19, Cotton Malone series.
Cotton Malone's third outing leaves the biblical mystery world but still tackles an ancient mystery. The retired U.S. Justice Department Agent turned rare-book dealer in Copenhagen finds himself looking for the final burial place of Alexander the Great. Of course. it can't be that simple. Author Steve Berry throws in a female supervillain: a ruthless despot who has singlehandedly united the former Central Asian Soviet republics into a major world player and who dreams of becoming the 21st century Alexander the Great who plans to devastate the rest of Asia with biological weapons of mass destruction. There are other secrets too, like Greek fire and a panacea cure for deadly viruses. It's definitely a familiar Cotton Malone adventure, with his usual associates, globetrotting from city to city, gunfights in historic sites, betrayals on top of betrayals, and a shadowy organization of powerful oligarchs, but they're fun, with tasty historical bits scattered throughout.