The Lincoln Myth - Steve Berry
After three unsuccessful tries, struggling author Dan Brown cracked the NYT bestseller lists with The Da Vinci Code in 2003 – and by 2005 his previous novels had also gone viral, in the literary sense. Most critics of a literary bent considered tdVC to be little more than a potboiler, but there’s no denying that Brown managed to hit on the magical formula that sells books like hotcakes. And that’s why a bazillion other books have been written that attempt to follow the magic formula.
The elements of Brown’s formula are: a mystical religious relic, a centuries-old conspiracy, a larger-than-life hero, a madman (preferably filthy rich), a beautiful woman, and skein of puzzles.
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| Salt Lake Temple (credit: Entheta, wikimedia commons) |
So far, Steve Berry has written at least nine attempts to recapture Brown’s formula. He’s sold a lot of books in the process, but the sad truth is that while Brown’s efforts are at least pedestrian, Berry’s Cotton Malone series (The Alexandria Link, The Templar Legacy) can’t even reach that level. Neither can The Lincoln Myth, for that matter…
Cotton Malone may have retired, but his old boss still has the big guy on speed dial. That’s how he's gotten entangled in the web of intrigue involving a 160-year-old letter between Abraham Lincoln (that Lincoln, the 16th PoTUS) and Brigham Young (that Young, a prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints – the Mormons). Seems there’s a cabal of Mormon fundamentalists who want the letter, long hidden, and – more to the point – a secret addendum to the U. S. Constitution that will supposedly allow states to secede at will.
