Review: The Patriot Threat (Cotton Malone, #10) by Steve Berry (Goodreads Author)

The Patriot Threat by Steve Berry
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I have been a fan of Steve Berry’s Cotton Malone Series for a very long time. I really like this series but it’s one of those hit and miss for me.
His latest, The Patriot Threat, the 10th book in that series was sadly a bit of a miss!

The main plot in this book asks the question – “What if the 16th Amendment of America’s Constitution that allows the government to collect federal taxes was illegal? What would the consequences be if the government was forced to give back all the taxes paid by Americans?

The story started off well…..

Cotton Malone dove to the floor as bullets peppered the glass wall. Thankfully the transparent panel, which separated one space from another floor-to-ceiling, did not shatter. He risked a look into the expansive secretarial area and spotted flashes of light through the semi-darkness, each burst emitted from the end of a short-barreled weapon. The glass between him and the assailant was obviously extra-resistant, and he silently thanked someone’s foresight.

but I found myself plodding through a lot of American history that kept being repeated over and over again….causing me to skimmed over a load of pages! There were so many characters jumping all over the place that I needed to concentrate a LOT to just keep up with what was happening.

What I liked:

Seeing Cotton Malone again. He’s a really interesting character and love seeing how he operates on his missions. He’s fast thinking, brave and takes no crap from anyone. He’s a maverick and does what needs to be done to complete the mission. He’s like a Jason Bourne/James Bond mix!!!

”He was outgunned, but not outsmarted.
Control what’s around you and you control the outcome.”

The author does an incredible job of merging politics, conspiracies and history together, interwoven really well between present and past. He has a talent in his research of history, which is always part of his books. I am fascinated by what he includes in his books….and I find myself goggling a lot of the things that are part of the story….conspiracies…one I had never heard about…the $20 conspiracy theory aphorism!!! Wow!!!!

The twists and turns, the clues…..hell, I even checked out the famous painting to see what the author meant….

The action and escapades were beyond high-speed as all the good and bad guys “jumped” from one place to another….Venice, Washington, Croatia and more!!!

I am hoping that Cotton Malone’s side-kick, Luke Daniels will be having some more time in the next books. I find him totally irresistible….

The interaction between Cotton’s boss, Stephanie Nelle, chief of the Magellan Billet and Danny Daniels, the American President. I hope something comes together for these two in future books.

One of the new characters introduced in this book, Treasury agent Isabella Schaefer, who helps Cotton and Luke with getting the bad guys. I kind of had a feeling that something could be brewing between her and Luke Daniels.

What became boring after a while for me:

The meeting between President Franklin D. Roosevelt and financier Andrew Mellon, whilst very interesting, just kept being brought up over and over again.

I still have no idea of the ins and outs of income taxes, despite the very many many pages about it in this book. Can I be honest and say I did not find it very interesting???? There were a lot of pages about it..so I skimmed those I had read before.

Where was Cassiopeia Vitt? I wish that she and Cotton decide if it’s on or not? Cotton misses her and does nothing about it!!!!

I’m not sure if the reason for me not loving this book was the taxes storyline or something else.

But still, it is worth reading if you are a fan of this series.

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