Steve Berry offers high octane adventure thrillers for history enthusiasts

Over the last twenty years, Steve Berry has published over thirty books, and a few novellas. He's carved out a nice niche in the historical thriller genre and continues to take readers to locales all over the world.

Berry has an interesting process. He takes something historic and he writes a fictional story around it. Some of his tales are more plausible than others, but he does his homework and he does filter in enough accepted historical facts in most of his stories to peak the interest of people who love history, but don't necessarily want to be bogged done in often dry non-fictional tomes on historical subjects.

Berry's first three novels were stand-alone books. His first, The Amber Room, delves into what might have become of the room made of amber from the Tsarist period in Russian history. It disappeared during World War II and hasn't been found. Berry took that fact and rolled out a fantastic tale as to what might have happened to it and how it might be recovered.

He has five of these stand-alone novels total, but his moneymaker has been his 19-book Cotton Malone series. He uses the same formula to construct a story around whatever interesting, often obscure, historical fact or event he finds.

Steve Berry has a knack for non-stop action in his historical thrillers

He's similar to Dan Brown in that his stories are based on history and the speculative aspects of those historical parts usually have a degree of plausibility to them. That being said, there have a been book or two where the story isn't all that plausible, but usually, he connects the possible dots fairly well.

Of course, there are always villains. Often they are part of some sort of secret society or conspiratorial group of shadowy, nefarious characters with plenty of money and little in the way of moral compasses or scruples.

In the Malone series, the protagonist is a former US intelligence officer. He has experience in the field and an eidetic memory. He's a lover of history and antique books. He often gets caught up in his former world, but he's a likable, no-nonsense character, who is softer on the inside than he allows his exterior to project.

As far as Berry's writing style, it is quick-paced and action-packed. He does explain the history of whatever fact, item, or event that is at the core of each story, and he feeds other facts about that into each of his books. If there was one nit-picking negative about his style it would be his jumps from tense POV to tense POV too rapidly, often after just a few paragraphs, instead of letting some of those simultaneous moments play out before addressing the next.

That style is not unusual for the action/adventure/thriller genres. Tom Clancy used it for many years and in novels, as have many others. It is used to heighten the moment and the intensity of each scene and point of view to the fullest. And to keep the readers turning the pages!

Steve Berry has honed his craft pretty well over his career. You know what you are going to get with his novels. They are extremely quick reads you won't want to put down. If you like history, there is enough in each one to satisfy, even if you aren't buying into his premise. The tales are still interesting.  These books would probably make a terrific TV series in the right hands.

If you are looking for a new author, and like the adventure thriller genre, you can't miss with Berry. He's become a master in this genre.  With 25 million books sold in his career, his popularity seems to still be strong.