Cotton Malone Series

Embark on a thrilling global adventure where history, art, and dangerous secrets intertwine. Follow a protagonist with a unique background as he unravels complex conspiracies rooted deep in the past. Each installment promises a fresh mystery and a heart-pounding chase, testing his intellect and courage. Are you ready for a journey filled with twists and historical revelations?

Recommended Reading Order

The Templar Legacy
Steve Berry
460 pages
17 hours of reading
The ancient Knights Templar, once wielding immense wealth and power, vanished during the Inquisition, leaving their hidden treasures lost. Now, two factions competing for this treasure have uncovered its true nature, which could transform the modern world. Cotton Malone, a former U.S. Justice Department operative turned antiquarian book dealer in Copenhagen, is drawn back into a dangerous world when his former supervisor, Stephanie Nelle, is attacked during a mission unrelated to national security. She possesses vital clues to ancient puzzles across Europe, aiming to solve a mystery that has captivated scholars and treasure hunters for centuries: the legendary wealth and forbidden knowledge of the Templars, thought lost after their destruction in the fourteenth century. However, she faces competition from Raymond de Roquefort, a shadowy zealot commanding a ruthless army of assassins, who is desperate for the information Stephanie holds. Cotton, unwilling to remain on the sidelines, joins the fray, but as he delves deeper into the ancient conspiracy, he realizes that much more than lives are at stake. In this lethal race filled with intrigue and treachery, a shocking discovery awaits that could either save or doom the civilized world, depending on who wields it.
1
3.9
The Alexandria Link
Steve Berry
544 pages
20 hours of reading
"Too bad former secret agent Cotton Malone knows how to unearth the lost contents of the Library of Alexandria; now his bookstore has been ransacked and his son kidnapped."--From source other than the Library of Congress.
2
4.0
The Venetian Betrayal
Steve Berry
A pacy international thriller with a historical twist, from the New York Times bestselling author.
3
4.0
The Charlemagne Pursuit
Steve Berry
509 pages
18 hours of reading
A mysterious manuscript discovered in the tomb of Charlemagne sends Cotton Malone on a perilous international quest that takes him and twin sisters with their own agenda from an ancient German cathedral to the harsh, unforgiving world of Antarctica in pursuit of the truth about the death of his father on a classified sub mission beneath Antarctica. 350,000 first printing.
4
3.9
The Paris Vendetta
Steve Berry
Former Justice Department operative Cotton Malone wakes to find an intruder in his Copenhagen bookshop: an American Secret Service agent with assassins on his heels. Narrowly surviving a ferocious firefight, the two journey to the secluded estate of Malone’s friend Henrik Thorvaldsen. The wily Danish tycoon has uncovered the insidious plans of the Paris Club, a cabal of multimillionaires bent on manipulating the global economy. But Thorvaldsen also harbors a hidden agenda—a vendetta—that will force Malone to choose between friend and country, past and present. Starting in Denmark, moving to England, and ending up in the storied streets and cathedrals of Paris, Malone is forced to match wits with a terrorist for hire and to plunge into a desperate hunt for Napoleon’s legendary treasure, lost for two hundred years. It’s a breathless game of duplicity and death, all to claim a prize of untold value. But at what cost? From the Paperback edition.
5
3.9
The Emperor's Tomb
Steve Berry
436 pages
16 hours of reading
Former government operative Cotton Malone teams with old heartthrob Cassiopeia Vitt on a dangerous mission to retrieve a priceless Chinese lamp from the third century B.C.E.
6
4.0
The Jefferson Key
Steve Berry
592 pages
21 hours of reading
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Four presidents of the United States have been assassinated—in 1865, 1881, 1901, and 1963—each murder seemingly unrelated. But what if those presidents were all killed for the shocking same reason: a clause contained in the United States Constitution? This is the question faced by former Justice Department operative Cotton Malone. When President Danny Daniels is nearly killed in the heart of Manhattan, Malone risks his life to foil the murder—only to find himself at odds with the Commonwealth, a secret society of pirates first assembled during the American Revolution. Racing across the nation and taking to the high seas, Malone and Cassiopeia Vitt must break a secret cipher originally possessed by Thomas Jefferson, unravel a mystery concocted by Andrew Jackson, and unearth a document forged by the Founding Fathers themselves—one powerful enough to make the Commonwealth unstoppable. Don’t miss Steve Berry’s short story “The Devil’s Gold” and an excerpt from The King's Deception in the back of the book.
7
3.9
The King's Deception
Steve Berry
Cotton Malone and his fifteen-year-old son, Gary, are headed to Europe. As a favor to his former boss at the Justice Department, Malone agrees to escort a teenage fugitive back to England. But after he is greeted at gunpoint in London, both the fugitive and Gary disappear, and Malone learns that he's stumbled into a high-stakes diplomatic showdown - an international incident fueled by geopolitical gamesmanship and shocking Tudor secrets
8
4.0
The Lincoln Myth
Steve Berry
In September 1861, a shocking secret entrusted to Abraham Lincoln becomes pivotal as the Civil War begins. Faced with the choice to save thousands of lives or preserve national unity, Lincoln grapples with the weight of this volatile knowledge. In the present day, the remains of Mormon pioneers, victims of a tragic expedition, are discovered in Utah, igniting a political clash in Washington, D.C., involving a powerful senator and a Mormon elder under investigation. Meanwhile, a Justice Department agent in Denmark has gone missing, captured by a zealot intent on fulfilling prophetic visions. Cotton Malone, a former agent now running a bookstore, finds himself thrust into chaos after a call from his old boss. He must rescue an informant with crucial intelligence, a task he hoped to avoid after leaving the Justice Department. As he navigates a high-stakes chase, Malone enters a deadly conflict rooted in a conspiracy initiated by America's Founding Fathers over two centuries ago. From Copenhagen to Salzburg and the mountains of Utah, the shadow of the Civil War looms large as Malone races against time to uncover the truth about Lincoln, with the future of the nation hanging in the balance.
9
3.8
The patriot threat
Steve Berry
464 pages
17 hours of reading
The 16th Amendment to the Constitution legalized federal income tax, but what if there were problems with the 1913 ratification of that amendment? Problems that call into question decades of tax collecting, and could even bring down the US economy. 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 bring 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.
10
3.9
The 14th colony
Steve Berry
The explosive new Cotton Malone thriller by the international bestseller Steve Berry.
11
4.0
The Lost Order
Steve Berry
493 pages
18 hours of reading
The Lost Order continues renowned New York Times bestseller Steve Berry’s Cotton Malone series with another riveting, history-based thriller.
12
4.0
The Bishop's Pawn
Steve Berry
340 pages
12 hours of reading
Former Justice Department agent Cotton Malone uncovers a disturbing link between a case from his past and the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. that risks innocent lives and threatens the legacy of the Civil Rights movement's iconic martyr.
13
4.0
The Malta Exchange
Steve Berry
416 pages
15 hours of reading
A deadly race for the Vatican's oldest secret fuels New York Times bestseller Steve Berry's latest international Cotton Malone thriller.
14
3.8
The Warsaw Protocol
Steve Berry
352 pages
13 hours of reading
The latest international thriller featuring Cotton Malone - one by one the seven precious relics of the Arma Christi, the weapons of Christ, are disappearing from sanctuaries across the world.
15
3.6
The Kaiser's Web
Steve Berry
400 pages
14 hours of reading
In New York Times bestseller Steve Berry’s latest Cotton Malone adventure, a secret dossier from a World War II-era Soviet spy comes to light containing information that, if proven true, would not only rewrite history — it could impact Germany's upcoming national elections and forever alter the political landscape of Europe. Two candidates are vying to become Chancellor of Germany. One is a patriot having served for the past sixteen years, the other a usurper, stoking the flames of nationalistic hate. Both harbor secrets, but only one knows the truth about the other. They are on a collision course, all turning on the events of one fateful day — April 30, 1945 — and what happened deep beneath Berlin in the Fürherbunker. Did Adolph Hitler and Eva Braun die there? Did Martin Bormann, Hitler’s close confidant, manage to escape? And, even more important, where did billions in Nazi wealth disappear to in the waning days of World War II? The answers to these questions will determine who becomes the next Chancellor of Germany. From the mysterious Chilean lake district, to the dangerous mesas of South Africa, and finally into the secret vaults of Switzerland, former-Justice Department agent Cotton Malone discovers the truth about the fates of Hitler, Braun, and Bormann. Revelations that could not only transform Europe, but finally expose a mystery known as the Kaiser’s web.
16
4.1
The Last Kingdom
Steve Berry
464 pages
17 hours of reading
From celebrated New York Times bestselling author, Steve Berry, comes the latest Cotton Malone adventure, in which the discovery of a lost historical document challenges the global might of the United States. King Ludwig II of Bavaria was an enigmatic figure who was deposed in 1886, mysteriously drowning three days later. Eccentric to the point of madness, history tells us that in the years before he died Ludwig engaged in a worldwide search for a new kingdom, one separate, apart, and in lieu of Bavaria. A place he could retreat into and rule as he wished. But a question remains: did he succeed? Enter Cotton Malone. After many months, Malone's protégé, Luke Daniels, has managed to infiltrate a renegade group intent on winning Bavarian independence from Germany. Daniels has also managed to gain the trust of the prince of Bavaria, a frustrated second son intent on eliminating his brother, the duke, and restoring the Wittelsbach monarchy, only now with him as king. Everything hinges on a 19th century deed which proves that Ludwig's long-rumored search bore fruit - legal title to lands that Germany, China, and the United States all now want, only for vastly different reasons. In a race across Bavaria for clues hidden in Ludwig's three fairytale castles - Neuschwanstein, Linderhof and Herrenchiemsee - Malone and Daniels battle an ever-growing list of deadly adversaries, all intent on finding the last kingdom.
17
4.4
Atlaský manévr
Steve Berry
440 pages
16 hours of reading
Cotton Malone v ohnisku boje mezi CIA a nejstarší bankou na světě Koncem druhé světové války ukrylo Japonsko na Filipínách válečnou kořist známou jako Jamašitovo zlato. Část legendárního pokladu ale objevila americká vláda a tajně ho převezla do Švýcarska, kde ho ukryla do trezoru nejstarší světové banky. Ta ho chce teď využít k útoku na světové finanční systémy. Cotton Malone se neplánovaně ocitne uprostřed boje mezi CIA a bankou a zároveň zjistí, že jedna z aktérek dramatu byla součástí jeho minulosti. Rozhodně nehodlá nečinně přihlížet, ale do cesty, která vede až do marockého Atlasu, se mu staví zákeřné překážky a cena za jejich zdolání bude vysoká.
18
4.1