Because I've Read The Alexandria Link

The Alexandria Link is the second novel in Steve Berry's Cotton Malone series. The title itself leaves a lot open for interpretation since there are a lot of historical details that are linked to Alexandria that spanned many ancient cultures. Thanks to a little game on my itouch called "Seven Little Words" and an idea of what topics Berry might write about (from The Templar Legacy), I thought of the lighthouse of Alexandria, formally known as the Pharos Lighthouse of Alexandria, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Unfortunately, The Alexandria Link is not about the lighthouse, but about the Library of Alexandria. That was a real place, check it out on wikipedia.
In this novel, we meet new characters as well as our old, friendly, clever characters. We meet Cotton Malone's wife and son, Pam and Gary. We're taken into the story with Pam showing up at her husband's Copenhagen home to tell him that someone kidnapped their son, and unless Malone give them the Alexandria Link, they would kill Gary. However, things are never as simple as it seems and Gary Malone's kidnapping was merely a ruse for something much more sinister. Something that would affect the entire western world. Unlike The Templar Legacy, in which there was only one side to the battle, this book contains three fronts of battle, therefore three head antagonists. While Malone and his wife travel with a man (antagonist number 1) to find the Library of Alexandria, Stephanie Nelle (a character we have met in the previous book, head of the Magellan Billet from the Justice Department of the U.S.) and Cassiopeia Vitt (my favorite Spanish sharpshooter with keen eyes, great mind, and a love for classical and ancient things) are in Washington D.C. trying to unravel a plot that would affect the top level of government and destabilize the world (antagonist numero dos). Nelle and Vitt has to move about as spies and play a game of espionage, having the first rule being who to trust. If readers are like me, trying to guess which person our favorite female leads should trust, you'll be at the edge of your seat until the end. Not everything is what it seems or sounds. The last front is from Henrik Throvaldsen and Gary Malone, who are in Vienna, trying to figure out what the Blue Chair, the leader of the Order of the Golden Fleece, was trying to do (antagonist number c). They come upon a great conspiracy that begs us to dryly ask the question: what would one do for power.

Points that are good:

• The ending. It really makes you go, "Damn". 
• Reappearance of our lovable characters such as Cassiopeia Vitt and Henrik Throvaldsen.Throvaldsen proves that he's more than just a rich guy; he's resourceful. I would be SO devastated if something were to happen to him during the rest of the series. 
• Cotton Malone. I swear! He's like my new fictional crush! Sure, he shoved his ex-wife out of an Army cargo (there were parachutes), but hell, if he never did, she would never have agreed to jump and hence they would miss their point of destination. Hell, if he shove ME out of a plane like that, I'd probably do what his ex-wife did. 

Overall, after reading this book, I am very much looking forward to the rest of the books in the series. The next on is titled, The Venetian Betrayal. Venice, Italy? Betrayal, meaning some more espionage and secret society stuff? Venice was quite a Renaissance city. I am very excited! 

Crossing Point #22: The elbows and the knees are one of the few hardest parts of the body. Extremities on the human body are quite sensitive. Contact of the elbows or the knees to the extremities can be quite effective. Hence, as always, if you think you can get away from your attacker, an elbow to the nose or a knee to the groin would probably help. For a bonus point, if your elbows are too short, use the hard part of the palm to the nose. Anything to the nose will force the other person to close his or her eyes. For a split second. So run.