Mystery in history

The Lincoln Myth
Steve Berry
Hachette
2014, pp 455
399
 Start with an all-American myth such as ‘Abraham Lincoln got rid of slavery’. Stir in a sachet of American history, the Civil War. Add several pounds of a uniquely American faith: Mormonism.

Now take a retired agent of the US Justice Department who specialises in international crime; mix with a girlfriend who has beauty and billions; add a suave villain who secretly communes with the ghost of an apostle; toss in an American president or two or three; stir it all up with a senator with secession on his mind; fling in a few exotic locales such as Copenhagen, Salzburg, Washington DC, Utah. Finally, sprinkle half a dozen dead bodies. Knead this mix every which way you want. Shape into roughly plot-sized rolls, dip in a thin batter of antique books, lost maps, top secret historical documents that, if revealed, would unravel the Constitutional laws that keep the United States, well, united. Pop into sputtering prose and fry to a crisp. What you have is The Lincoln Myth by Steve Berry. Best accompanied by total suspension of belief.

Like Berry’s earlier books — The Templar Legacy, The Jefferson Key, to name a few — this one too is a slick speculative thriller that combines a present day crisis with centuries-old history. In this case, going right back to the Founding Fathers and the Declaration of Independence. It helps if you already know the background, but doesn’t matter if you don’t, as a wealth — even an excess — of historical detail is provided. Much of it is esoteric, such as the history of The Latter-day Saints or Mormons, a religion quintessentially American, that was started in 1860 by Joseph Smith as a means of ‘restoring’ the Church as conceived by Jesus. (Its list of taboos includes abortion, homosexuality, sex outside marriage, drinking, gambling, alcohol, tea, coffee and consumption of drugs.) 

 While all these fascinating details add to your  general knowledge, they don’t do as much for the plot which revolves around recovering a vital secret document that has been handed down from President to President, but went missing after Lincoln loaned it to the Mormon leader, Brigham Young. However, as aficionados of the Dan Brown-style thriller genre know, a well-knit plot doesn’t matter as much as the twists and turns of fast-paced action. There is plenty of that — dodging bullets, high-speed motorboat chases, graveyard assignations, thefts in historical homes, search for Conquistador gold.
The cast of characters is, likewise, varied. Besides Cotton Malone, the ex-agent who now runs an antiquarian bookshop, there is his former lady boss, Stephanie Nelle, head of Magellan Billet, whose call to action has him always rising to the occasion. There is also Cassiopeia Vitt, a flame of sorts who flits in and out of the chapters with no clear purpose. The villain is a Mormon millionaire, Josepe Salazar, who is going mental, a process hastened by the rekindling of his boyhood crush on Vitt. She reciprocates it somewhat, thus superimposing a weak love triangle on a barely visible plot.

Dedicated Latter-day saints did not believe in premarital sex, so their relationship had never been physical.

But it had been real.

So much that it had survived eleven years inside him.

Aside from the main characters, there is a Mormon senator with a sinister  plan, sundry US agents zipping around, and a couple of assassins belonging to a set of hardcore religious types, the Danites, who believe that sending off ‘sinners’ to their Maker is tantamount to doing them a favour.

While history — extracts from the Book of Mormon and the Constitution, private memos of former Presidents — is delivered in longwinding sentences, the present day story comes at the reader in gunfire bursts that are the hallmark of the genre. Meant to build up tension, the technique, due to overuse, can bring on the condition known as Numbed Brain, whose first symptom is glassy eyeballs.

He grabbed hold of the Beretta. It had served him well yesterday. How many people had he killed with it over the years? Ten? Twelve? Fifteen?

Hard to remember.
Which bothered him.
Go figure!

Steve Berry is a lawyer-turned-thriller writer whose books have won awards and been translated into 40 languages. His strengths are twin-fold: meticulous research and racy plot. While the first makes this particular title an intriguing read, the ‘mystery’ slaloms down a slippery slope; by the time you reach the end, the route you took to get there no longer matters. What you do learn on the way is that ‘Lincoln didn’t fight the Civil War to save the Union. He fought the war to create it.’ A light read recommended for those who like history to be fun.

Madhavi S Mahadevan