Review of 'The King's Deception' by Steve Berry
I love a good historical fiction novel, but this one didn't hit the spot for me. I thought from the blurb it was going to be a book partly sent in the present part, part during the Tudor period, but it was a modern day novel which looked at evidence from the Tudor period as part of the plot. I wish I'd known beforehand that it was more of an attempt at a thriller than historical fiction - I might have enjoyed it a little more.
Cotton Malone, the novel's protagonist, is taking his teenage son from America to Europe, but gets waylaid in England doing a favour for his old boss from when he worked in the intelligence services. He's got to drop a fugitive off somewhere, but everything goes wrong when they're attacked: his son is kidnapped, the fugitive flees, and Malone's left with a big mess on his hands and a lot of stress. He becomes embroiled in this modern day drama, which drags him into a long-discussed question over Tudor secrets that could wreak havoc on contemporary politics and stability.
I really struggled to enjoy any aspect of this book. I found the characters very flat and 2D, and the big twist reveal in Malone's private life was so obvious before it was revealed that I was shocked it wasn't a bluff from the author to divert your attention from what really happened. One of my biggest issues with the book was that it was so obviously written by an American about England. The amount of shooting that happened in London and Hampton Court with no one noticing or caring was just???? I think the setting felt all out of place and it made the plot fall through in places. The author also kept the historical secret so wound up in the book that I lost interest in finding out what it was, and it made everyone's attempts to find out the truth of the history feel pointless because you didn't know what was being debated.
I gave this 1 star and wouldn't recommend it. There wasn't enough historical content to make it a historical fiction book in my opinion, and it wasn't gripping enough to make it a good thriller at all.
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