The King's Deception    by Steve Berry Order:  USA  Can Ballantine, 2013 (2013) Hardcover, CD, e-Book      Reviewed by Mary Ann Smyth Good news - Cotton Malone is back. This time, Cotton is escorting a young man to London at the behest of the English government. Ian is thought to have seen something authorities wish to question him about. He is not too happy about returning. Ian is a slippery young man with no respect for authority. He lives on the streets and has but one friend. Cotton's fifteen year-old son accompanies them. Gary is spending some time with his Dad, planning to go with him to Amsterdam where Cotton owns and operates a book store. Somehow they stumble onto a high diplomatic showdown involving secrets that King Henry the VIII is supposed to have whispered to his son Edward IV on his deathbed. Before Edward could do anything about that secret, he died a natural death – tuberculosis claimed a number of the King's family. The King's Deception by Steve Berry is an engaging novel with past detail that should more than satisfy any history buff. We segue neatly from Henry VIII's time to today. Henry's secret could very well rock England to its very foundations. Reading further we are privy to that secret Wow! What a doozy! Is he or isn't she? Berry has taken a centuries' old mystery, brought it up to date and turned out a top-of-the-line novel. It will surely heap more praise on this author who has fifteen million books in print, translated into forty languages and sold in fifty-one countries. Hard to beat that. Kidnapping, murder, manipulative governments (nothing new there), intrigue, tombs and history, history, history. If only my teachers way back when had had a spark of interest in what they taught ... oh, well, that time is long over. I did enjoy the history in this well-researched book. Very much. As did I enjoy the mystery and intrigue that kept me reading from first page to last, wishing for more. Note: Opinions expressed in reviews and articles on this site are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of BookLoons. Find more Mystery books on our Shelves or in our book Reviews