Book Review: ‘The Warsaw Protocol’ Is The Next Thrilling Cotton Malone Novel

by | Feb 10, 2020 | Books | 0 comments

One again Cotton Malone is in the wrong place at the wrong time and gets roped into a mission he never asked for or wanted.

Cotton Malone is in Bruges in Belgium for a book fair to pick up some rare books for some of his customers. He’s checking out an event that happens daily called The Veneration of the Precious Blood, one of seven ancient relics that are part of Arma Christi. But things go haywire. A smoke bomb is set off and he sees three people stealing the relic. He gives chase and ends up on the water where he crashes a boat, ends up in the water and then in jail. Lucky for him his old friend and former boss Stephanie Nelle is in the area and is able to get him out. She wants him to help with an assignment.

Someone has incriminating dirt of the President of Poland involving the Warsaw Protocol from years ago. Seven countries are invited to an auction to get the information. They must each bring one of the Aram Christi relics in order to be part of the event. President For, the new President of the United States (and who Cotton does not like) wants to put a missile system in Poland. Poland doesn’t want them and they are at a stand-off. The US has been invited to be part of the auction and Fox wants this info bad so he can force Poland to do his bidding.

Cotton is one of the people that goes to the auction which turns out to be a cluster. There’s a betrayal and most everyone ends up dead except for Cotton. The information is still out there and Cotton figures out where it may be, a salt mine that is still in use today. It leads to a deadly showdown between three groups wanting the information.

Once again author Steve Berry has written a thrilling novel with one of my favorite characters in Cotton Malone. In the author notes Steve talks about his research and going to the places he writes about like Bruges and the salt mine. If you’ve never read a Cotton book before jump on in. This is the 15th book in the series and each one is written like a stand alone. Cotton is one of the best characters in novels every year.

You can pick up The Warsaw Protocol in stores on Tuesday, February 24th from Minotaur Books.