The Paris Vendetta

A Novel

By: Steve Berry

Narrated by: Scott Brick

Length: 13 hrs and 32 mins

Publisher's summary

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “All the Steve Berry hallmarks are here: scale, scope, sweep, history—plus breathless second-by-second suspense. I love this guy.”—Lee Child

Former Justice Department operative Cotton Malone wakes to find an intruder in his Copenhagen bookshop: an American Secret Service agent with assassins on his heels. Narrowly surviving a ferocious firefight, the two journey to the secluded estate of Malone’s friend Henrik Thorvaldsen. The wily Danish tycoon has uncovered the insidious plans of the Paris Club, a cabal of multimillionaires bent on manipulating the global economy. But Thorvaldsen also harbors a hidden agenda—a vendetta—that will force Malone to choose between friend and country, past and present. Starting in Denmark, moving to England, and ending up in the storied streets and cathedrals of Paris, Malone is forced to match wits with a terrorist for hire and to plunge into a desperate hunt for Napoleon’s legendary treasure, lost for two hundred years. It’s a breathless game of duplicity and death, all to claim a prize of untold value. But at what cost?

BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Steve Berry’s The Columbus Affair and a Cotton Malone dossier.

©2009 Steve Berry (P)2009 Random House

Critic reviews

"Steve Berry always finds intriguing ways to link the past to the present in his fast-paced thrillers. The Paris Vendetta is his best yet."—Harlan Coben

Mr. Brick's performance lackluster

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

It was not a waste of my time because I really like the stories composed by Steve Berry. Historical Fiction is at the top of my list.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

Scott Brick also narrates the Clive Cussler novels and I like those, but this performance left much to be desired. I found his accents completely misused and monotonous. If he has the slightest idea of a scandanavian accent he should use it. And his narration especially during the dialogues, was "sing-song"

Was The Paris Vendetta worth the listening time?

A hard decision. It's a good story, but needed a better narration.

Any additional comments?

Scott Brick does a fine job with the Clive Cussler stories. Perhaps another voice here would be a better choice--even a female voice.

Solid, but not my favorite Berry effort

The Paris Vendetta had all of Berry's typical trademark elements, historic intrigue, good vs evil, colorful characters, and lots of plot twists, but the combination just didn't carry me along as all of his previous books did. Possibly I'm not as interested in Napoleon as previous book plots involving the Templars or Jefferson's fascination with codes. I remain a Steve Berry fan and look forward to Cotton Malone's next adventure.

Good but hard to follow.

I am reading and listening to the entire cotton Malone series in the order written. For some reason this one is harder to follow as an audiobook so I plan to purchase the printed version to help me fill in the gaps that are not connecting and oral narration.

Excellent Narration, book a bit repetative

I've read the previous reviews and cannot understand why so many have slammed Scott Brick (SB) for his narration - which I have always found excellent.

I think many people who like a book read to them in a drab manner don't deserve the ability of this narrator and should listen only to those books that are read poorly.

Personally, SB rocks and brings even a bad book (which this one is not) to life!

As far as the book is concerned, I found it 'ok', but a bit repative in places. Good plot though and more or less worth the read.

OK at times, but poor narration and characters

This is my first Berry novel, and overall, I was disappointed. I didn't hate the book, but wouldn't recommend it either.

The beginning is quite slow; and the end feels abrupt and unsatisfying. The long and protracted development of the female "villain's" character and diabolical scheme comes to a sudden and unrealistic anti-climax. After hours and hours of nebulous theorizing and planning, the whole thing comes apart in a way that she should have planned for. Unsatisfying.

I also did not like the narrator, especially in the beginning - however it didn't bother me too much after some time. Jumping back-and-forth between characters and locations so often, in third-person, was also off-putting.

I did finish it, so it's not terrible; just not great either.

A gut wrenching entry in the Cotton Malone series

This was a tough listen. It dealt a lot with grief, sorrow, loss, and obsession. None of those make this easy. Here we deal with the loss of Henrick's son, which also was what brought him and Cotton together for the first time.

Cotton here is just getting over the events of the last book by a couple weeks. Still processing his own father's death when he is drawn into Henrick's spiral relating to his son's death and those killers.

We are introduced to a couple new friends and potential recurring characters and a possible recurring adversary.

The story is fine. Narration is excellent as always. The material is just tough.

It will be interesting to see where we go from here.

The Paris Vendetta- a great read

Do you like Steve Berry’s historical fiction? I do. I also enjoy the adventures of Cotton Malone, ex Dept of Justice field agent for the US, who retired to be a bookseller, running an old fashioned bookstore in Copenhagen, Denmark.
This adventure covers a fictional account of Napoleon Bonaparte. He discovered a mysterious parchment with knowledge from an earlier unknown race in a pyramid in Giza.
Later, France, Corsica, and the US get drawn into a treasure hunt filled with intrigue.
You must read this book! Enjoy!

Paris

Like the way Berry writes and the narration is great. It will hold your interest to the very end.

Bigger books, longer stories!

First Steve Berry book I’ve listened to on Audible. The author is one of my favorites and I already search for Scott Brick as narrator of books I choose. Needless to say I’ve enjoyed the last few days and sorry the book ended.

Strange narration

I have always enjoyed Scott Brick as a Narrator.

The narration has odd pauses, strange (and inaccurate) foreign inflections and inappropriate emphasis throughout the book. I will continue to listen as the plot and the writing itself is interesting. But the odd narration allows only short periods of listening enjoyment.