The Jefferson Key, by Steve Berry
Tucked away in Article 1 of the U.S. Constitution is an archaic clause that allows Congress to grant letters of Marque and Reprisal to private citizens to wage war on our country’s enemies. Such privateers were an important force in both the American Revolution and in the War of 1812, capturing far more enemy ships than the tiny American navy. All but Spain and U.S. banned privateering in the 1850s. It was not until the 1890s that the U.S. Congress officially halted the practice but stopped short of actually amending the Constitution.
On that intriguing note Steve Berry has crafted a superbly paced novel of mystery and adventure featuring former Justice Department operative Cotton Malone who engages in a battle of wits with modern day pirates as well as agents from both rival and rogue intelligence agencies.
Working on behalf of the president, Malone is out to prevent the four families who make up the Commonwealth, a nearly 300-year-old officially sanctioned band of privateers, from finding a lost document secreted away by Andrew Jackson that has legitimized their plundering for centuries. This small but powerful group has already succeeded in assassinating the four presidents who chose to defy them. Berry may be overly fond of outlandish names but his love of history resonates throughout this lively and imaginative tale.
The School of Night, by Louis Bayard
Thomas Harriot is a brilliant but modest English mathematician, astronomer, ethnographer and translator who despite his many accomplishments remains little known to this day because of his reluctance to ever publish his findings. Harriot is at the heart of this extraordinary historical thriller, set partly in modern-day Washington, D.C., and partly in England in 1603.
An impoverished (and disgraced) Elizabethan scholar, Henry Cavendish, is offered a large sum of money to retrieve a letter that a noted but unscrupulous collector claims has been stolen by a mutual friend. Soon he’s joined by Clarissa Dale, a beautiful young woman who claims to have frequent visions that make sense only to Henry and which link their investigation with events from the 17th century, in particular involving a young servant girl who has been recruited by Harriot, who recognizes genius even when it appears in an unlikely form, to help him in his researches.
The title comes from a secret society of which Harriot, Christopher Marlowe, Sir Walter Ralegh (as it’s spelled now), and other great scholars of the day, are all members, convening regularly to debate matters learned or downright heretical. There are parallel and poignant love stories, between Henry and Clarissa and between the disfigured Harriot and his humble servant Margaret, and deception and treachery on many fronts. While it’s flawlessly researched, Bayard never loses sight of his obligation to the reader as a storyteller, and the result is a highly entertaining as well as enlightening look at an intriguing bit of history.
Secret of the White Rose, by Stefanie Pintoff
The Edgar-winning author brings back her turn-of-the-century New York City detective Simon Ziele in a case where an anarchist’s bomb intended to kill millionaires ends up killing innocent bystanders, including a child. Presiding over the sensational trial is Judge Hugh Jackson, who is found murdered in his locked Gramercy Park townhouse the night before the jury is set to deliberate.
His widow calls upon her husband’s old classmate, criminologist Alistair Sinclair, who in turn brings in Ziele, although the case is outside his jurisdiction and the investigating police resent his unorthodox methods. Meticulously researched, it explores the theme of terrorism, as much a part of the city’s life then as it is now. It’s a worthy successor to the author’s two earlier books featuring Ziele.
