The King's Deception: A Novel

• Publisher: Ballantine Books
• Year: 2013
• Category: Fiction

✦ Synopsis

Cotton Malone is back! Steve Berrys new international adventure blends gripping contemporary political intrigue, Tudor treachery, and high-octane thrills into one riveting novel of suspense.

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 hes stumbled into a high-stakes diplomatic showdownan international incident fueled by geopolitical gamesmanship and shocking Tudor secrets.

At its heart is the Libyan terrorist convicted of bombing Pan Am Flight 103, who is set to be released by Scottish authorities for humanitarian reasons. An outraged American government objects, but nothing can persuade the British to intervene.

Except, perhaps, Operation Kings Deception.

Run by the CIA, the operation aims to solve a centuries-old mystery, one that could rock Great Britain to its royal foundations.

Blake Antrim, the CIA operative in charge of Kings Deception, is hunting for the spark that could rekindle a most dangerous fire, the one thing that every Irish national has sought for generations: a legal reason why the English must leave Northern Ireland. The answer is a long-buried secret that calls into question the legitimacy of the entire forty-five-year reign of Elizabeth I, the last Tudor monarch, who completed the conquest of Ireland and seized much of its land. But Antrim also has a more personal agenda, a twisted game of revenge in which Gary is a pawn. With assassins, traitors, spies, and dangerous disciples of a secret society closing in, Malone is caught in a lethal bind. To save Gary he must play one treacherous player against anotherand only by uncovering the incredible truth can he hope to prevent the shattering consequences of the Kings Deception.

Praise for *The Kings Deception

A Dan Brown-ian secular conspiracy about the Virgin Queen driving nonstop international intrigue.Kirkus Reviews*

Praise for Steve Berry

Berry raises this genres stakes.The New York Times

I love this guy.#1 New York Times bestselling author Lee Child

Forget Clancy and Cussler. When it comes to this genre, there is simply no one better.The Providence Journal

From the Hardcover edition.

Review

Praise for *The Kings Deception

A Dan Brown-ian secular conspiracy about the Virgin Queen driving nonstop international intrigue.Kirkus Reviews

Praise for Steve Berry

Berry raises this genres stakes.The New York Times

I love this guy.#1 New York Times bestselling author Lee Child

Forget Clancy and Cussler. When it comes to this genre, there is simply no one better.The Providence Journal*

About the Author

Steve Berry is the New York Times and #1 internationally bestselling author of The Kings Deception, The Columbus Affair, The Jefferson Key, The Emperors Tomb, The Paris Vendetta, The Charlemagne Pursuit, The Venetian Betrayal, The Alexandria Link, The Templar Legacy, The Third Secret, The Romanov Prophecy, and The Amber Room. His books have been translated into 40 languages with more than 15,000,000 printed copies in 51 countries.

History lies at the heart of every Steve Berry novel. Its this passion, one he shares with his wife, Elizabeth, that led them to create History Matters, a foundation dedicated to historic preservation. Since 2009 Steve and Elizabeth have traveled across the country to save endangered historic treasures, raising money via lectures, receptions, galas, luncheons, dinners, and their popular writers workshops. To date, nearly 2,000 students have attended those workshops. In 2012 their work was recognized by the American Library Association, which named Steve the first spokesman for National Preservation Week. He was also appointed by the Smithsonian Board of Regents to serve on the Smithsonian Libraries Advisory Board to help promote and support the libraries in their mission to provide information in all forms to scientists, curators, scholars, students and the public at large. He was named Georgia Author of the Year (2005) and has received the Royden B. Davis Distinguished Author Award and the 2013 Writers for Writers Award bestowed by Poets & Writers.

Steve Berry was born and raised in Georgia, graduating from the Walter F. George School of Law at Mercer University. He was a trial lawyer for 30 years and held elective office for 14 of those years. He is a founding member of International Thriller Writersa group of more than 2,000 thriller writers from around the worldand served three years as its co-president.

For more information, visit www.steveberry.org.