Oh boy, Cotton has come out of retirement again. He’s working freelance for British intelligence – a simple buy and sell of letters between Churchill and Mussolini which had been lost in 1945. But now his orders are to steal them, things are getting complicated, and he finds himself on Malta involved in more than he’d bargained for. To spice things up, Luke Daniels is also on Malta, sent by Stephanie Nelle to monitor the movements of Cardinal Gallo just before the concave to select the next Pope. This is a good book, full of the history of Malta, the Knights, the Catholic Church, most of which was new to me. I loved every page. What’s not to love: plots, murders, fantastic narrow escapes, all kinds of blood and gore. Typical Cotton Malone. And at the end, Berry separates the fact from the fiction, which is a very good thing. If you enjoy action and adventure mixed with a nice dose of history, don’t miss this.

eGalley review                                             Publication date 3.5.19