I am always excited for a Steve Berry book, especially if it’s part of the Cotton Malone series, because I always learn something new about world history. When he adds his highly creative imagination to the fictional parts of the tale, you have a complete novel that is geared to knock your socks off.

THE KAISER’S WEB, Cotton Malone’s 16th adventure, is no exception. You know you are in for a wild ride when you are presented with this quote from Adolf Hitler: “The masses have little time to think. And how incredible is the willingness of modern man to believe.” By the time you have turned the last page, you will reflect on how prophetic those words were.

"Steve Berry truly has outdone himself here, and as wild as the plot twists get, the book never loses credibility or plausibility. THE KAISER’S WEB is one of the most insightful, timely and exciting reads of the year."

Former U.S. President Danny Daniels is on a mission to help another head of state with whom he had developed a friendship during his eight years in office. He is in Germany at the behest of their Chancellor to speak with a woman in captivity. Apparently, Hanna Cress is in possession of information that will change the face of Germany and its upcoming election. Daniels questions Hanna, who mentions that she is working with an older man named Gerhard Schüb. Just when it appears that she is going to reveal more, she takes a puff of a cigarette and promptly goes into convulsions, eventually succumbing to the cyanide that was in the cigarette. The last word she gets out through a foaming mouth is “Kaiser.”

Daniels calls in the two best people he knows who can uncover any information no matter how buried it may be: former Justice Department agent and now bookseller Cotton Malone and his love interest/colleague, international agent Cassiopeia Vitt. As they take a small plane flown by Malone towards Poland, they are shot down just over the border. With only one parachute aboard, their entry is quite adventurous and life-threatening. Never let it be said that Cotton Malone does not know how to make an explosive entrance into his novels.

When they eventually hook up with Daniels, he quickly brings them up to speed on the political landscape in Germany. The election will impact the culture and face of the country for perhaps decades to come. The candidates are Daniels’ friend, Chancellor Marie Eisenhuth, and Theodor Pohl. Eisenhuth is running on the premise that the new Germany needs to grow and leave their misdeeds of the past behind. Pohl is the exact opposite --- a product of the Nazi past that much of the country is trying to forget. Furthermore, he believes that he is the long-lost child of one of Hitler’s henchmen, Martin Bormann, and Hitler’s infamous lover, Eva Braun. On top of that, Pohl has a man working for him who will literally make your blood run cold. Josef Engle is one of the most ruthless and calculating killers you will ever read about.

It turns out that the secrets Hanna was about to reveal came from her relationship with Gerhard, and they all trace back to the final days of WWII. Many people recognize that as the Russians and Allied armies were approaching, Hitler and Braun took their own lives in the bunker rather than face torture and imprisonment. Suppose Braun got away by staging another body and Hitler handpicked Bormann to escape so they could continue the Nazi mission and ideology? Fast forward nearly 80 years, and the results of this subterfuge are about to blow an election wide open.

To make matters even doubly dangerous for the selection of the new Chancellor, Pohl is working with Marie’s no-good husband, Kurt, to reveal information that Kurt was a Nazi sympathizer and built his family and their empire on Nazi money. This will blow Marie out of the water as those allegations are a lot easier to prove than the supposed lineage behind the untrustworthy Pohl, who is now appealing to the hidden minority that miss the old Germany.

What transpires is Malone and Vitt having to jet from Eastern Europe to South Africa, and finally to some hidden vaults in Switzerland, where you will not be prepared for the final revelations. The big finale, held in a bunker under Pohl’s own home, is worth the price of admission as the entire plot is impacted by the looming shadow of Hitler and the Kaiser’s web. Steve Berry truly has outdone himself here, and as wild as the plot twists get, the book never loses credibility or plausibility. THE KAISER’S WEB is one of the most insightful, timely and exciting reads of the year.