You could say that it was all started by that fiery man from the Carolinas, Andrew Jackson. After the Commonwealth, a secret society of privateers, sent an agent to assassinate Jackson, he took revenge on the group by hiding their letter of marque and expunging any record of it from Congressional documents. Jackson then taunted the group by sending them the information they need to regain the letter–in code. The code was created by another president, Thomas Jefferson, who thought it to be the perfect code.
Fast forward to the present. Now a very different man from the Carolinas, Quentin Hale, is on the scene. Hale is the head of one of the four families that make up the Commonwealth, and he is the de facto leader of the group. From his base near Bath, North Carolina, Hale commands a corporate empire built on banking, manufacturing, and real estate–but an empire that has been considerably enriched by stealing assets and damaging companies that the Commonwealth considers enemies of the United States. The federal government had not been of one mind on how to deal with the Commonwealth, but when the Commonwealth goes after the friendly government of Dubai, the president decides the privateers have gone too far. That makes the president a marked man. After a failed assassination attempt, the president calls on Cotton Malone to bring the Commonwealth down. Double-dealing on both sides makes for a high body count and a number of twists. This thriller takes place in North Carolina, New York, Washington, Nova Scotia, and at Jefferson’s Monticello.
This is the first book in the Cotton Malone series with a North Carolina setting.
Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.
