The Malta Exchange

I just finished reading The Malta Exchange, Steve Berry's lasted Cotton Malone adventure.  Malone is an ex-secret agent who retired to Copenhagen to become a bookseller, but who is always being called back by his old boss for especially difficult assignments.  The story starts out with Malone trying to obtain letters allegedly written by Winston Churchill to Mussolini, promising Mussolini the island of Malta if he didn't ally with Hitler (you all know how that turned out).  However, he and his sidekick Luke soon get involved with the Knights of Malta and a plot to manipulate a conclave that is choosing a new pope.  I really enjoy reading this series, the present book included, but lately Berry is letting his political opinions leak into the plots.  In previous books he has trashed Franklin D. Roosevelt, claimed that Abraham Lincoln illegally prevented the south from seceding from the Union, and in this book not only has negative things to say about Winston Churchill, but also Pope John Paul II.  I myself just ignore these jabs, but they are still annoying, none-the-less. Even so, I still recommend that you pick up a copy from your local library and read it.  As the old television commercial went, "try it, you'll like it."