Steve Berry has published 20 historical thrillers over the past 18 years, but until his newest work, The Kaiser’s Web, he hadn t directly explored the heritage of the Nazi regime in Germany. I wanted to do a story that came out of World War II. I haven t dealt with this much, because the subject has been done to death. I needed to find a fresh way to approach it, and I came across something in my research, Berry, 65, said, speaking from his home in Orlando, Florida.
The novel is set in a version of the present and stars Berry’s frequent hero, Cotton Malone, a former United States government operative retired and running a used book store in Denmark, but willing to take on a case if an ex-President buddy asks for a favor.
Author talk: Steve Berry to share insights into historical thriller at Thurber House event msn.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from msn.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The Knights of the Golden Circle was the largest and most dangerous clandestine organization in American history. It amassed billions in stolen gold and silver, all buried in hidden caches across the United States. Since 1865 treasure hunters have searched, but little of that immense wealth has ever been found.
Now, one hundred and sixty years later, two factions of what remains of the Knights of the Golden Circle want that lost treasure - one to spend it for their own ends, the other to preserve it.
Thrust into this battle is former Justice Department agent Cotton Malone, whose connection to the knights is far deeper than he ever imagined. At the center is the Smithsonian Institution - linked to the knights, its treasure, and Malone himself through an ancestor, a Confederate spy named Angus Cotton Adams, whose story holds the key to everything. Complicating matters are the political ambitions of a reckless Speaker of the House and the bitter widow of a United States Senator, wh
In the mesmerizing
“The Kaiser’s Web” (Minotaur, 452 pages, $28.99), the tried and true Steve Berry exceeds even himself in crafting his most ambitious and relevant thriller to date. A no-holds-barred, high-stakes romp with echoes of class spy novelists like John le Carré, Len Deighton, and Alistair MacLean.
Berry’s Hitchcockian “McGuffin” this time out is a Soviet spy dossier dating back to World War II that has the potential to upend the balance of power in Europe and, thus, the world. Good thing hero-without-portfolio Cotton Malone is on the job to prevent a catastrophic conclusion to an election in Germany, making that country only the first to fall in the face of the true fate of the primary Nazi principles. And the race is on to recover the mysterious dossier of the title that contains the terrifying revelations certain to bring the world to its knees.