The Medici Return

De: Steve Berry

Narrado por: Scott Brick

From celebrated New York Times bestselling author Steve Berry comes the latest installment in his wildly popular Cotton Malone series—an adventure that takes Cotton to Italy to solve a five hundred year-old mystery.

Cotton Malone is on the hunt for a forgotten 16th century Pledge of Christ—a sworn promise made by Pope Julius II that evidences a monetary debt owed by the Vatican, still valid after five centuries—now worth in the trillions of dollars. But collecting that debt centers around what happened to the famed Medici of Florence—a family that history says died out, without heirs, centuries ago.

Who will become the next prime minister of Italy, and who will be the next pope? Finding answers proves difficult until Cotton realizes that everything hinges on when, and if, the Medici return.

©2025 Steve Berry (P)2025 Grand Central Publishing

Cotton Malone is back

Cotton Malone returns in another story of someone trying to use history to gain power through a secret lost in history. But history has a way of becoming known again. This time Cotton is mixed up in a plot to gain control of the Italian government by way of blackmailing the Vatican. Favors are called in and soon Cotton finds himself going from a simple sneak and peek to having someone try to kill him. From there we pinball through the past half millenia of Italian history.

An enjoyable listen, particularly when Cotton is front and center of the action. This takes a while to happen as we have a pretty large cast of characters here. Perhaps too large. After a bit I tended to get a bit lost between all the new players involved.

Still, all in all I recommend this book.

Great mix of reality and fiction

Steve Berry never disappoints in his writing! I have read all of his works and will continue to.

Good story line

Know the time period well. Seeing all the places that I have been many times.

Sparks more learning

I love Steve Berry’s books; some more than others (the bitcoin one wasn’t my fave). This book is spectacular and now I want to dig back into my European history studies. I majored in history in college but I’ve always had an England and Scotland focus. The story, much of it created by the author, fit into the facts disclosed at the end.

Terrific narration. Vivid imagery. Excellent story.

Fantastic!

Loved that this book featured horses! Always enjoy Steve Berry books! Scott Brick has such a captivating voice!

outstanding

plot, characters, story, complexity, color, research, history, quality. Steve Perry delivers every time, every time

Interesting, storyline and plot

If you were a sports lover who likes ancient ritual, then you will love this book I found a lot of the detail repetitive, and only the fascinating plot around the meter cheese kept me reading this

Very heavy catholic hierarchy and misconduct. Good Italian history,

Good story, but too much about the Vatican and the nastiness of the Cardinals. Very depressing. Revisiting the cities of Siena, Florence and others was good. I am sure it is true, but Priest assassins and greedy Cardinals are disturbing.

Cotton Malone rides again

Another great cotton Malone novel written by Steve Berry. As always, I enjoy the mixing of history with fiction that makes his books feel so real and relevant.

A little confusing to follow

It wasn’t my favorite. I felt the story was a bit slow and I go confused either way all the character changes.