"The Venetian Betrayal"

by Steve Berry

By now I’ve read most of Berry’s novels, having first reviewed one here a couple of years ago. I was initially taken with his adoption of the Dan Brown novelistic approach – modern adventure drama surrounding historical themes, and all of his works I’m familiar with follow that plot schema. The typical scenario involves a conspiring evil or amoral group attempting to confiscate, exploit, eliminate, or otherwise control a world-shaking historical event which, for one reason or another, is shrouded in secrecy; the good guys and gals use James Bondish methods to thwart the baddies.

In his “Alexandria Link”, the secret is an ancient mistranslation of scripture regarding the location of the land deeded by God to Abraham. In “The Romanov Prophecy” there is the mystery of the possible Czarists descendents (hint – the legitimate heir to the Russian throne is a cornball lawyer in North Carolina. Go figure). “The Third Secret” involves the attempt by the Roman Catholic magesterium to suppress the last revelation given to the three kids in a visitation by the Virgin Mary in the early 20th century. The Catholic Church is also given a less-than positive view in “The Templar Legacy”. Etc., etc.

Berry continues a mildly anti-Papist trend in the novel under review, but here the church’s involvement is tangential, directed more toward unsavory political associations.

The historical issue in “The Venetian Betrayal” (copyrighted in 2007) is the final resting place of Alexander the Great, and its connection with a miracle anti-viral (specifically anti HIV) pharmaceutical substance. As one might expect, one of the evil entities is a pharmaceutical cartel along with the usual, for Berry, insidious bunch of world power brokers. In addition, though, he gives us an especially despicable political despot villain, the leader of an Asian power made up of all the ‘—stans’ which were formerly Russian provinces. This tyrant’s mode of operation is exemplified by a novel method of execution – wrongdoers are bound between two trees which are forcefully bent toward each other until their tops nearly reach the ground. Cutting the ropes holding the trees leads to instantaneous split personalities.

The kicker here, however, is that this leader is a decidedly unlovable woman, and the reader, at least this one, becomes so eager to see how she ends up that there is a temptation to skim to the ending.

The hero is a recurring Berry figure, Cotton Malone, currently a book store operator with a previous life as a secret agent. In typical Berry fashion, however, there is a confusing cast of other characters, many with mixed loyalties, and it is a bit difficult to remember just who is who.

Also the plot progress seems a bit erratic, moving from location to location and action to action quickly, only to have periods of drag and plodding. On the whole, though, I found this to be a fun read for adventure lovers, especially for us who enjoy deep, dark ancient secrets and mysteries, but it is certainly more male than female oriented.

Reviewed by Ken West