Author/Series Spotlight: Steve Berry and the Cotton Malone series

This week's letter is B for the Alphabet in Crime Fiction challenge.  When I went again to my spreadsheet of books I have read from 2004-2010 to find something to go with B, I came up with author Terri Blackstock, but I also noticed that I had read several books by Steve Berry.  Now Steve Berry doesn't really write crime fiction but I wanted to do something on him because I just received his newest book, The Emperor's Tomb in the mail for review.

Steve Berry is a suspense/thriller writer at least by my definition.  There is a mystery/suspense plot line in his books, at least the ones I have read which revolve around Cotton Malone (who I am secretly in love with) ;)

I mentioned above that I received his newest book for review, but I also have another book of his in my library tbr pile.  So which books do I have?

First is The Paris Vendetta.  Yes I am huge Cotton Malone fan but somehow with blogging and reviewing I missed reading the new book from 2009.  And the second book is his new one The Emperor's Tomb which I mentioned before (and since I love Cotton Malone you know I jumped on getting that book when the publicist contacted me).  So now to get down to business and read these two books.  I'm excited, I love getting immersed in Cotton's world and how he doesn't want to be a part of the investigation, but he just can't help himself.  I love learning about bits of history, sometimes things I didn't even know about.  The books are fast-paced, have interesting characters and great mystery.

So check him out if you haven't, or catch up if you need to like me.  I keep telling myself when I finish the Cotton Malone books I will go back and read his stand-alones.  It won't be a problem, the library has all of them :)

I realize I have never reviewed a Cotton Malone book on the blog.  Well that will be remedied soon, but there is no way I could go back and review the earlier books, so I'll just say they were great.  The books kept me hooked from the beginning to the end and next time my husband is looking for a new series to read I will be quick to recommend these to him.

So what books are in the Cotton Malone series?
   

1. The Templar Legacy
2. The Alexandria Link
3. The Venetian Betrayal
4. The Charlemagne Pursuit
5. The Paris Vendetta
6. The Emperor's Tomb

 Just a little bit about Steve Berry (from Fantastic Fiction)

Steve Berry lives on the Georgia coast in Camden County. He's a lawyer who, for twenty-five years, has helped people both in and out of the courtroom. He's also active in local politics, having served on the Camden County Board of Education and, currently, he is one of five members of the Camden County Board of Commissioners.

His website

Bloggiesta Update #1

It's Bloggiesta update time.  For those of you unfamiliar, Bloggiesta is hosted by Natasha at Maw Books Blog and is a weekend long event to help those of us who blog tidy up, spruce up and just do things in general to make our blogs a better place.  I have lots of goals and who knows what I will accomplish.  But here is what I have accomplished so far.

1. 1 review written to be posted next week to coincide with a blog tour
2. Lots of reading on twitter
3. participated in 3 mini-challenges so far (goals, organization and email)
4. Formatted 2 reviews that are to post in the near future - just waiting for the actual review
5. Made new Book Review and Book Feature templates
6. 1 Interview formatted for next week 
7. Minor changes to About Me and Review Policy pages
8. Cleaned up sidebar (thinking of further purging, but I'm doing it in stages)
9. 3  memes written & scheduled for next week (part of me becoming more of a member of the blogging community again)

More work to come - it looks like it may snow here this afternoon, so it will be a perfect time to curl up in my chair with my blanket, a warm beverage and my laptop warming my lap and do some more work.