The Patriot Threat (Cotton Malone Series #10)

by Steve Berry Narrated by Scott Brick

Overview

In an innovative new approach, Macmillan Audio and Steve Berry have produced an expanded, annotated Writer's Cut audiobook edition of The Patriot Threat.

Critically-acclaimed, award-winning narrator Scott Brick returns as the voice of dauntless protagonist Cotton Malone and New York Times bestselling author Steve Berry has written and recorded behind-the-scenes commentary filled with insights into the fascinating and little-known historical facts that fuel his novel.

The 16th Amendment to the Constitution legalized federal income tax, but what if there were problems with the 1913 ratification of that amendment? Secrets that call into question decades of tax collecting. There is a surprising truth to this possibility-a truth wholly entertained by Steve Berry, a top-ten New York Times bestselling writer, in his new thriller, The Patriot Threat.

His protagonist, Cotton Malone, once a member of an elite intelligence division within the Justice Department known as the Magellan Billet, is now retired. But when his former boss, Stephanie Nelle, asks him to track a rogue North Korean who may have acquired some top secret Treasury Department files-the kind that could force the United States to its knees-Malone is vaulted into a harrowing twenty-four-hour chase that begins on the water in Venice and ends in the remote highlands of Croatia.

With appearances by Franklin Roosevelt, Andrew Mellon, and a curious painting that still hangs in the National Gallery of Art, Steve Berry's trademark mix of history and suspense is 90% fact and 10% exciting speculation, a provocative thriller that poses a dangerous question: What if the Federal income tax is illegal?

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

One of Berry's best books to date.” —The New York Times

“Steve Berry is a master at weaving together historical details with fiction to create a spellbinding thriller...Suspenseful, entertaining and thought provoking. As usual, Berry’s writing is smooth, the plot well thought out, and the characters realistic. Another winner from Steve Berry.” —The Providence Journal

“Cotton Malone is once again thrown into the midst of fast-paced international threats. The history in this novel is intriguing, even to non-history buffs.” —RT Book Reviews (4 stars)

“A fast-paced and entertaining traditional thriller along the lines of The Da Vinci Code. [The Patriot Threat is] loaded with action, character sketches, fascinating history and Mr. Berry’s liberal use of poetic license.” —The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

MAY 2015 - AudioFile

Scott Brick is an outstanding narrator, and those who enjoy mysteries that include American history will especially enjoy this audiobook. Cotton Malone, the hero of this series, is a retired agent for the Justice Department who returns to investigate whether the 16th Amendment, which authorizes the federal income tax, was properly ratified. A tax evader and the son of a late Korean dictator are also involved. Brick portrays Malone with finesse and obvious pleasure as he travels from Washington to the canals of Venice and the highlands of Croatia. Maintaining strong projection and appropriate emphasis as suspense mounts, Brick deftly captures the adventurous hero and the author's enthusiasm for history. S.C.A. 2016 Audies Winner © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews

2015-01-08
During the Great Depression, former Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon gave President Franklin Delano Roosevelt a marked dollar bill and a cryptic note. The puzzle contained in those items now forces retired intelligence agent Cotton Malone to save the world economy. Berry (The Lincoln Myth, 2014, etc.) yanks Malone out of his Copenhagen bookstore and sends him to Venice to shoot at a helicopter. The chopper crashes. Twenty million dollars go up in smoke—money from a scheme to fill the coffers of North Korea's Dear Leader. Stephanie Nelle, chief of the Magellan Billet—the U.S. Justice Department's elite intelligence group—had dispatched Malone to foil that caper, but he's soon immersed in a scheme engineered by "self-absorbed, egotistical, and maniacal" Kim Yong Jin, the Dear Leader's exiled half brother. That rogue is hunting U.S. tax protestor Anan Wayne Howell, who supposedly possesses evidence that the American income tax isn't valid because "the 16th Amendment was illegal all along." There's more: evidence that descendants of Haym Salomon are owed multiple billions for loans made to finance the American Revolution. "Bringing the United States to its knees would not be easy, but it also no longer seemed impossible" now that the long-secreted material has been uncovered by a disgruntled Treasury bureaucrat and given to Howell. The most interesting character is Hana Sung, Kim's illegitimate daughter, who spent her childhood in a North Korean gulag, living in filth, starved and beaten. Action is frantic, major characters are static, but Malone joins forces with serious-minded Treasury agent Isabella Schaefer—an evolving player sure to appear in upcoming Magellan superspy adventures—in shoot-'em-ups from Venice to the wilds of Croatia. Another page-turning thriller blending history, speculation and fast-paced action.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940169399103
Publisher:	Macmillan Audio
Publication date:	03/31/2015
Series:	Cotton Malone Series
Edition description:	Unabridged

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