The Medici Return

De: Steve Berry

Narrado por: Scott Brick

From celebrated New York Times bestselling author Steve Berry comes the latest installment in his wildly popular Cotton Malone series, in which Cotton must solve a five hundred year-old mystery—now in development as a streaming series.

Cotton Malone is on the hunt for a forgotten 16th century Pledge of Christ—a sworn promise made by Pope Julius II that evidences a monetary debt owed by the Vatican, still valid after five centuries—now worth in the trillions of dollars. But collecting that debt centers around what happened to the famed Medici of Florence—a family that history says died out, without heirs, centuries ago.

Who will become the next prime minister of Italy, and who will be the next pope? Finding answers proves difficult until Cotton realizes that everything hinges on when, and if, the Medici return.

©2025 Steve Berry (P)2025 Grand Central Publishing

Cotton Malone is back

Cotton Malone returns in another story of someone trying to use history to gain power through a secret lost in history. But history has a way of becoming known again. This time Cotton is mixed up in a plot to gain control of the Italian government by way of blackmailing the Vatican. Favors are called in and soon Cotton finds himself going from a simple sneak and peek to having someone try to kill him. From there we pinball through the past half millenia of Italian history.

An enjoyable listen, particularly when Cotton is front and center of the action. This takes a while to happen as we have a pretty large cast of characters here. Perhaps too large. After a bit I tended to get a bit lost between all the new players involved.

Still, all in all I recommend this book.

Great mix of reality and fiction

Steve Berry never disappoints in his writing! I have read all of his works and will continue to.

Good story line

Know the time period well. Seeing all the places that I have been many times.

Sparks more learning

I love Steve Berry’s books; some more than others (the bitcoin one wasn’t my fave). This book is spectacular and now I want to dig back into my European history studies. I majored in history in college but I’ve always had an England and Scotland focus. The story, much of it created by the author, fit into the facts disclosed at the end.

Terrific narration. Vivid imagery. Excellent story.

Fantastic!

Loved that this book featured horses! Always enjoy Steve Berry books! Scott Brick has such a captivating voice!

Love the storyline.

The book is well written, fast paced, yet easy to follow. I enjoyed it from the first scene to the final, and I love the factual references at the end of each book.

Cotton Malone action throughout the Book!

Started slow. Hard to follow all the dialogue in the beginning chapters. When the action began, the plot was awesome. Good ending.

Great Cotton Malone book

Interesting and great pace. Love the separation of fact and fiction. Can’t wait for the next one.

Great Read . . .

Excellent research as all of Berry’s books + unique character development. I enjoyed this book immensely!

Mixed Feelings

I usually fully love a Cotton Malone novel but this one was half-baked for me. I was okay with all of the history and lore involving the Catholic Church. They have enough terrible history to result in good storytelling. For the most part I was okay with the mystery elements. I was not okay with how the narration flowed. The transition from person to person was not great at all. Most characters sounded the same and it took a few seconds to realize who was talking. I found that most annoying. Honestly my three stars are generous. I absolutely. hated the ending. I think it was a terrible way to so called resolve things. I can’t say more than that without giving away too much . This is not how you resolve a mystery. Darnit.