In an innovative new approach, Macmillan Audio and Steve Berry have produced an expanded, annotated Writer’s Cut audiobook edition of The Patriot Threat.
Critically-acclaimed, award-winning narrator Scott Brick returns as the voice of dauntless protagonist Cotton Malone and New York Times bestselling author Steve Berry has written and recorded behind-the-scenes commentary filled with insights into the fascinating and little-known historical facts that fuel his novel.
The 16th Amendment to the Constitution legalized federal income tax, but what if there were problems with the 1913 ratification of that amendment? Secrets that call into question decades of tax collecting. There is a surprising truth to this possibility-a truth wholly entertained by Steve Berry, a top-ten New York Times bestselling writer, in his new thriller, The Patriot Threat.
His protagonist, Cotton Malone, once a member of an elite intelligence division within the Justice Department known as the Magellan Billet, is now retired. But when his former boss, Stephanie Nelle, asks him to track a rogue North Korean who may have acquired some top secret Treasury Department files-the kind that could force the United States to its knees-Malone is vaulted into a harrowing twenty-four-hour chase that begins on the water in Venice and ends in the remote highlands of Croatia.
With appearances by Franklin Roosevelt, Andrew Mellon, and a curious painting that still hangs in the National Gallery of Art, Steve Berry’s trademark mix of history and suspense is 90% fact and 10% exciting speculation, a provocative thriller that poses a dangerous question: What if the Federal income tax is illegal?
International Intrigue Based on Secrets from American History In 1913 Philander Knox stated that 33 states had ratified the 16th Amendment to the Constitution giving the US the ability to collect income taxes. However, the ratification was problematic. In the 1930’s the antagonism between Andrew Melon and FDR came to a head just before Melon died. He challenged FDR to follow the clues he had laid out to learn about two great secrets from America’s past, one relating to the ratification of the 16th Amendment. FDR died before he undertook the quest, but now…
Not my favorite Cotton Malone This is part of the Cotton Malone series and I wouldn’t recommend reading it if you haven’t read at least one of the other books in the series. The story generally stands alone so you could read it first, but there are references to characters and events not in this book that might be confusing. There is some background information but not really enough to give a new reader a lot of information about the character.Â
Cotton Malone Averts Disclosure of Documents That Threaten to Invalidate U.S. Income Tax, Destroy Global Economy THE PATRIOT THREAT is another “Da Vinci Code” formula novel–in which the lead character embarks on a sort of treasure hunt, following a bread-crumb trail of clues (found in widely scattered documents, maps, artifacts, building decorations, whatever) to discover or protect a shocking, closely-guarded secret that will change the world if revealed. Nobody does this kind of novel better than accomplished writer Steve Berry, and nobody carries out the investigation better than Berry’s…