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.

Knowledge of the country and history.

Not my favorite and I have read every book Steve Berry has written. The plots are similar, but way too much Medici! Will look forward to next book for sure. Glad he is still writing!

A bit complicated

Historical basis is cleaver and the recap of what is true and what is false is always a favor of mine.

A Talky action book

interesting, not exciting like previous Cotton Malone books. Performance was excellent, but I was glad when it was over.

Another success!

He always keeps the story moving and taking turns in new directions. Cotton does it again!

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!