last kingdom

The Last Kingdom is not the latest Cotton Malone novel by Steve Berry, but it's pretty recent. I picked up this copy from the book sale at my library, which discarded my copy after the rush for this title calmed down (I assume.)

I've read a bunch of the Cotton Malone stories, because my wife likes them, but I haven't read all of them, nor have I read them in order, but it seems to me that Steve Berry is working on spinning off a new character; Luke Daniels. I don't recall the last one of the Cotton Malone stories I read, but Luke Daniels may have made an appearance in that one. I've been a little lax in keeping up the blog, and unfortunately, not every book makes it on here as it should

Maybe its just that Berry has written Cotton Malone as a more mature character, and now he's aging out. He's essentially retired, owns a small rare bookstore in Amsterdam, or someplace... sorry, you can read it if you want the details has new young wife, or girlfriend ibid and the new guy, Daniels, is a much younger man. Young enough that he looks to Malone for help. So maybe, its a passing of the baton, rather than a new series?

This one had a little of that Dan Brown or "National Treasure" feel to it. The Last Kingdom has Malone and Daniels trotting around the Bavarian region in Germany searching for information about this local legend. They soon discover that they aren't the only ones looking, so the sub-plots, plot twists, double-crosses (and triple-crosses!) ensue. This was a fun romp, but didn't have me glued. I can usually tell based on how long it takes me to read a book; if it isn't a great book, I don't go out of my way to keep reading. Some books keep me at the breakfast table for an extra 10 minutes, or I stay up to finish a chapter before I go to bed. Great books have me skipping other things to find more time to read. This book took weeks, so, average read.