Customer Reviews

The Jefferson Key: A Novel

5 star:		(65)
4 star:		(29)
3 star:		(30)
2 star:		(36)
1 star:		(25)

 

 

Steve Berry has done it again. The Jefferson Key is an outstanding read. This work a major sized industrial strength novel closely integrating intrigue, complexity, and history.

Starts right off with a fast dramatic setting involving President Andrew Jackson, simultaneously disclosing some fascinating historical facts which I expect are known by very few.

And then immediately we're taken into the present, and our hero, Cotton Malone, has screwed up big time in a major pickle. We're off on our fast moving adventure. No slack here. . .

This novel wraps itself around a complex multi-faceted plot involving multiple security agencies, interesting interplays between strong characters in addition to Cotton, such as rouge agent Jonathan Wyatt (who I happen to like), NIA chief Andrea Carbonnel, and Cassiopeia Vitt, with shifting loyalties, and a strong private organization, called the commonwealth, which derived its credentials from a privateer past and Article 1 Section 8 of our Constitution - the little known or understood Letters of Marque. I had sometimes wondered what that clause meant and was all about.

In fact, there is a great deal of fascinating historical tidbits closely integrated with the plot, demonstrating an enormous amount of relevant research done by the author which went into this writing. Another way of saying it, there is a wealth of interesting information in this book.

This is one of those works which one wished did not end, rich in intrigue, action, and fascinating historical facts integrated closely within the current action.

The Jefferson Key gets off to a strong start, first with the attempted assassination of Andrew Jackson, then with an attempt on the life of a modern-day President. Cotton Malone, a former Justice Department operative, is dispatched to bring down the Commonwealth, a covert band of privateers whose roots go back to the American Revolution.

Mixing historical fact with fictional fancy, Steve Berry delivers a complex, perhaps even convoluted, thriller. There are lots of characters and lots of government agencies and at times it's difficult to remember who's who. The story follows multiple viewpoints, often within the same chapter. As a result, the plot comes across as a bit choppy and occasionally bogs down.

The most enjoyable aspect of The Jefferson Key is its portrayal of pirate culture. No camp buccaneers here; Berry gives us a brutal yet organised band who lives by a strict set of agreed-upon articles.

This is the first Cotton Malone book I've read, and as thrillers go, I have to say it is just average. However, the real life history woven into the story was quite interesting.

That Author Steve Berry has created here in an ingenious mix of history and fiction to tie together the plot line of this book.

Cotton Malone receives a request for help. He doesn't know why he's needed but he trusts the woman who is asking.

What unfolds here is an interesting and complex story of Governmental agencies working with and covertly against each other to solve a cipher that holds the key to a non Governmental group called the Commonwealth who was constitutionally enabled to act as Pirates that was authorized by George Washington. Giving them the ability to steal and disrupt other countries that are deemed enemies of the United States. However they have been using and abusing this loop hole for personal gain and not always acting on behalf of the United States.

The book through the fictional story line ties together the assassinations of four sitting Presidents Kennedy, Lincoln, McKinley, Jackson and fictional President Danny Daniels. Danny Daniels.

Berry will have you believing that almost all of the characters is or could be a suspect including the Presidents wife. It seems that almost everyone and every agency has something to gain or loose be the revealing the key to some secret documents.

The story line is complex and it difficult to figure out what the true motives of the characters until the end. This is an intense thriller that will keep you up late reading. The beginning of the book is like no other that i have read, it will lock you in right away and keep you reading all the way through to it's exciting conclusion.

This is the first Berry book I have read. Berry has produced several Cotton Malone books. As a reader I got a good feel for who the character Cotton Malone is from this book.

As I noted earlier , Berry mixes some non fictional history with fictional history. The last chapter Berry clears up what is non fictional history and what is fictional history and explains why he changed some minor facts to tie the story together. The only possible negative I can think of is that the reader is hit with a lot of characters and it can be hard to keep track of them only because the story and the motives of the characters are so complex. I'm not even sure if that's really a negative though.

The writing style is fluid, the editing is good if not great. There aren't many wasted words. The book flows from one chapter to the next

Very well done. Just about superlative I can think of can be attached to this book.

I love Steve Berry's books and more than a few of them grace my bookshelves. However, I did not find his latest, The Jefferson Key, as interesting and compelling as The Emperor's Tomb (Cotton Malone). Worse though, this latest offering kept forcing me to put it down.

Now, I am not a squeamish person. I've attended autopsies and studied all kinds of gruesome diseases and watched operations and dealt with gallons of blood. This time, though, Steve really outdid himself with graphic descriptions of torture. When eyeballs started flying across the pages of the book, I had had enough. There is such a thing as too much and frankly, The Jefferson Key is simply not interesting enough to overcome the stomach-churning gore.

Give this one a miss.

Nothing fascinates me more than ancient secrets, presidential cryptograms, ruined fortresses. These are the promises made by this book, which begins in spectacular fashion, with an attempted assassination of Andrew Jackson (and features a cameo by Davy Crockett, no less). There's a secret society of pirates, a lost document hidden via an ingenious puzzle, and lots of potential for a detective thriller along the lines of DaVinci Code or the great pirate treasure hunts of the past.

Unfortunately, this book is bound and determined to waste all of that by following around some special agents from top-secret special agencies, who all like to switch sides at the drop of a hat. I gather that this is "another adventure" for hero Cotton Malone. If he is always this bland, cliche, and thoroughly uninteresting, I have no desire to read his other adventures.

Also, I'm not a fan of some of the writing style. This thing breaks into a new scene every three paragraphs or so. I think this is intended to heighten the tension, but all it does is just drag stuff out, as we hop through literal minutes of various characters lives, waiting for them to either die, live, or move on to something else.

There is also an annoying habit.
Of ending every chapter.
With sentence fragments.
On individual lines.

I wanted to like this book. The description sounded interesting: assassination attempts tied together with a clause in the Constitution, letters of marque, an undeciphered message based on a Jefferson cipher. However, the reality of the book is quite different. There is little to interest you in any of the characters. The one I felt the deepest concern for was the President's wife who is a very peripheral character. The pirate business and all the other intelligence agency operations were depicted with way too much graphic detail in my opinion. This book should have been written on the more intellectual side given its main theme: finding the key to the cipher that would allow a centuries-old document to be located and restore the letters of marque to a pirate group. Instead there is lots of unnecessary-to-the-plot graphic violence and gory descriptions of torture. This is not a book I will keep around. I was truly disappointed.

I was excited to receive and review this book. The cover was a hook and I was interested as I have read another book by Mr. Berry and it was great.

1) My advanced edition had three blurbs from authors David Baldacci, Vince Flynn and Brad Meltzer. I have read everything they have written and they raved about this book so I was ready to start.

2) The opening was interesting and hooked me. It had everything you would need. Two assassination attempts on President's, letters of Marque, and a cipher. The first few pages were good.

3) As the novel continues the backstory is explained both in past and present tense. I thought this was good as well. It helps give depth to the story. However, it was here that my attention started to wander. I couldn't put my finger on it, but I wasn't riveted.

4) About midway through the book I lost interest. I struggled to keep going. If this book hadn't been free, except for a requirement for this review, I would have moved on to the latest Dan Brown book I just got. As I continued, I attempted to figure out what was causing the problem.

5) With about 100 pages to go I figured it out. Too many quick cuts in the story. The story be in one location and then cut to another character somewhere else, and then cut to another, and then another. Now I realize every book does this, but this work did it faster then any book I have read in awhile. Sometimes there were only a few sentences and then we were off to another location.

6) The hook was great, the backstory was solid, the characters were reasonable. Quick cuts killed this book for me.

The premise of the book is interesting and, for the first 25% or so, I was hooked. However, I quickly lost interest. Why?

The characters are poorly developed. Maybe we're supposed to know some or all from prior novels but, to a new reader of Berry's books, I had no feelings for any of the characters and thus didn't care what happened to them.

As others have said, the cuts between segments were too fast and the segments too short. Sometimes (on the Kindle version) the symbol between segments was larger/took up more space than the segment itself. It was hard to keep track of who was where and doing what to whom when we only got three short paragraphs and then onto another character and place and, three lines later, we're somewhere else. I just wanted to stay with one character for a couple of pages!

The story was half people trying to shoot each other and the other half history. The history was interesting. The other scenes were hard to follow. Someone darting here and aiming there and shooting wherever. Yes, a good thriller has chase scenes. But this story was almost all chase scenes and I found them hard to follow and not at all engaging.

Too formulaic. Bad intel agencies. Rogue operatives. Changing allegiances. But it lacked any interest or passion. If you're not invested in the characters, you don't care which side they're on. As they say, the opposite of love isn't hate, it's apathy, which is the emotion this book evoked.

I don't mind Berry playing a bit with history. However, if you're going to do it, at least do it well. And he didn't do it well.

If you want a mindless read on a beach, this is probably ok. But it lacks a lot as a thriller -- like the thrill.

I read every Steve Berry book... more for the history than the plot. Read the synopsis at the top and you've pretty much got the jest of the book. Let me tell you what I like and dislike about it.

Like his other books, the Jefferson Key incorporates true historical events into an interesting tale surrounding his usual characters highlighted of course by super-agent-turned-book-seller, Cotton Malone. Cassiopeia Vitt continues to be superwoman, and Stephanie Nelle is portrayed in a different light than in other tales. Interestingly, I think Malone is more grounded in this particular story than in others.

I have read all of Berry's books and I have concluded this: he knows how to take history and incorporate it into an interesting tale. Sometimes his plot gets in the way, as with the incessant details about privateers and pirates, but nevertheless, he does make the reader come back for more. In this particular story, for instance, by suggesting that the assassinations of president's past were not random, but connected to his main plot.

Berry has changed his writing style a bit, I noticed, by ending a chapter just when you expected an outcome... and then coming back to the event a few pages later. This isn't a new ploy, other author's have used it, but readers of Beery may not like that he has incorporated it into his style with this book. Frankly, I found it a bit annoying and used so often that I think he was just trying to keep the reader interested. "She pulled the trigger"....end of chapter. Stick around and I'll tell you what happened in a few pages... cute, but come on. Keep the story interesting and it will move along on its own.

I hope he continues to write these history-based thrillers, but I also hope he doesn't keep his mode of writing. I don't recall him using it to this extent in his other novels and was disappointed to discover it so often used in this one.

Still, I credit him for an interesting premise historical fans will enjoy.

While the story and conspiracy is good there are to many characters to keep track of and excessive back and forth between the 10 important characters in the story. It was hard to keep everyone straight and to develop any connection with names like Cotton and Cassiopia or some such. Then there is Knox, Hale, Wyatt, Daniels, Davis, Stephanie, Carbonell and Shirely. Just to busy.