Book Review: “The Lost Order” by Steve Berry

Genre: Thriller / Historical Fiction

“The Lost Order” is an ARC sent to me by the publishers. It is due in “stores” on April 4, 2017 and is the 12th book in the Cotton Malone series.

1865, Smithsonian Institution

Angus “Cotton” Adams is a former illustrator at the Smithsonian Institution. He is now a spy for the Confederacy and a knight in The Knights of the Golden Circle.

In these final weeks of the Civil War, Angus was asked by Jefferson Davis to deliver a skeleton key to Joseph Henry, Curator of the Smithsonian, and to retrieve his own journal from Henry.

A fire breaks out and Angus barely escapes with his life.  Luckily he still has the skeleton key and journal.

Present Day

Cotton Malone (yes, he is related to Angus) is on a treasure hunt, funded by the Smithsonian Museum of American History, in the Arkansas wilderness searching for gold that had been buried over 100 years ago by a secret organization, now thought to be dissolved: The Knights of the Golden Circle. Cotton had just followed the clues to find a jar of gold coins when he is knocked out and imprisoned, only to be rescued by Cassiopeia Vitt.

Senator Alex Sherwood died after he tripped and fell off a cliff into a river while walking in the woods behind his house.

Ex-President Danny Daniels is attending the funeral when something came to his attention that may be disturbing. Not one to sit and do nothing, he investigates.

Speaker of the House, Lucius Vance is attempting to change the Constitution so he will become more powerful than the President.

Diane Sherwood, her brother, and killer Grant Breckenridge, are looking for billions of dollars in gold that was hidden by The Knights of the Golden Circle. They are also helping Vance change the constitution.

Five stones, Angus’s journal, and a skeleton key….taken together….form a map, clues, and access to a hiding place where billions of dollars of The Knights of the Golden Circle gold is hidden. But finding these items proves to be nearly impossible as they are scattered around the USA and danger lurks at every turn.

“The Lost Order” is a fun, fast, and politically timely, book filled with history, treasure hunts, intrigue……and murder.