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Cotton Malone Books in Order

Part ofSteve Berry Books in Order

See all the Cotton Malone books by Steve Berry in order, with short summaries, series background, and gentle guidance on where new readers might want to start.

Last updated: December 16, 2025

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Publication Order

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25 books

1
New

The Devil's Bible

by Steve Berry

2026

When the sister of Sweden’s king is kidnapped, the ransom demand targets an unlikely object: the Codex Gigas, an eight-hundred-year-old manuscript nicknamed the Devil’s Bible. Cotton Malone and Cassiopeia Vitt must rescue the princess and protect the book as rival nations and old enemies close in.

2

The Medici Return

by Steve Berry

2025

Called in to help the Swiss Guard quietly investigate a German cardinal, Cotton Malone uncovers hidden cash and hints of a sixteenth‑century document called the Pledge of Christ. His search through Germany, Siena, and Florence collides with a modern fight over Italy’s leadership and the future of the papacy.

3

The Atlas Maneuver

by Steve Berry

2024

Doing a favor for a CIA friend, Cotton Malone quietly watches a young banker in Luxembourg connected to the shadowy Black Eagle Trust, a Cold War stash of looted gold. When assassins strike, he’s drawn into a battle over who will control that secret fortune and the leverage it brings.

4

The Last Kingdom

by Steve Berry

2023

Luke Daniels infiltrates a Bavarian separatist group while Cotton Malone tracks a prince plotting to unseat his brother. Their paths converge around King Ludwig II’s rumored search for a new kingdom and a nineteenth‑century deed that could give modern powers a legal claim to contested land.

5

The Kaiser's Web

by Steve Berry

2021

Competing candidates for Germany’s chancellorship send Cotton Malone and Cassiopeia Vitt digging into the last hours of Hitler’s regime. From Chile to South Africa to Swiss vaults, they chase evidence about Nazi escapes, hidden wealth, and a secret that could tilt European politics toward extremism.

6

The Warsaw Protocol

by Steve Berry

2020

After witnessing the theft of a holy relic in Bruges, Cotton Malone is sent to steal the Holy Lance from a Polish shrine as entrance fee to a secret auction. There, compromising files on Poland’s president are for sale to the highest bidder, including Russia and the U.S.

7

The Malta Exchange

by Steve Berry

2019

Working a quiet job for British intelligence, Cotton Malone finds a murdered dealer and rumors of long-lost letters between Winston Churchill, Mussolini, and the Vatican. His search collides with rival factions inside the Knights of Malta and a struggle over the choosing of the next pope.

8

Past Prologue

by Steve Berry

2019

At a Scottish castle hosting a rare book sale, Cotton Malone chases a stolen grimoire and touches a ring of ancient stones. He wakes in the eighteenth century Highlands, face to face with Jamie Fraser, and must survive long enough to find his way back—or decide not to.

9

The Bishop's Pawn

by Steve Berry

2018

Looking back on his first mission, Cotton Malone recalls being a young Navy lawyer roped into an off‑the‑books investigation of Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination. A rare coin and a cache of files reveal that the truth behind the killing is far murkier than the official story.

10

The Lost Order

by Steve Berry

2017

An assignment for the Smithsonian draws Cotton Malone into the buried caches of the Knights of the Golden Circle, a secret society that stole and hid vast quantities of gold. Modern heirs are fighting over the treasure while a ruthless politician plots to use it for power.

11

The 14th Colony

by Steve Berry

2016

Cotton Malone’s Siberian mission uncovers a Cold War weapon long thought mythical and a secret American plan to turn Canada into the fourteenth colony. As a Russian hardliner moves to exploit both, Cotton races toward Washington to prevent a decapitation strike on the U.S. government.

12

The Patriot Threat

by Steve Berry

2015

Tax records from the 1930s, a mysterious painting, and clues hidden on the dollar bill send Cotton Malone chasing a renegade North Korean agent. If the evidence he carries reaches the public, it could prove the federal income tax illegal and crash the American economy.

13

The Lincoln Myth

by Steve Berry

2014

A missing Justice Department agent and a secretive Utah sect draw Cotton Malone into a struggle over Abraham Lincoln’s legacy. Hidden documents about secession could be used to justify tearing the United States apart, and Cotton must decide how far he’ll go to defend the union.

14

The Devil's Bones

by James Rollins

2014

On an Amazon river cruise, Cotton Malone teams up with Sigma Force commander Gray Pierce to stop a rogue botanist. Their target wants to sell a rare orchid that produces a deadly neurotoxin, and the buyers aren’t worried about mass casualties.

15

The Tudor Plot

by Steve Berry

2013

Asked to courier a simple package to London, Cotton Malone stumbles onto a scheme that links present‑day British politics with an old lie about the Tudor line. This novella bridges adventures, hinting at the deadly secrets waiting in The King’s Deception.

16

The King's Deception

by Steve Berry

2013

Escorting a teenage fugitive to London as a favor to his old boss, Cotton Malone sees both the boy and his own son vanish. The disappearance leads into a CIA game built around a shocking theory about Queen Elizabeth I, Irish independence, and modern-day blackmail.

17

The Admiral's Mark

by Steve Berry

2012

After his brother‑in‑law dies in a suspicious diving accident off Haiti, Cotton Malone goes to investigate. He discovers the wreck of Columbus’s flagship, the Santa Maria, and finds himself caught between Israeli intelligence and deadly rivals obsessed with the treasure that went down with the ship.

18

The Jefferson Key

by Steve Berry

2011

After thwarting an assassination attempt on the U.S. president in Manhattan, Cotton Malone tangles with the Commonwealth, a secret brotherhood of modern pirates. To stop them, he must crack a cipher tied to Thomas Jefferson and expose a hidden constitutional clause with explosive power.

19

The Devil's Gold

by Steve Berry

2011

Jonathan Wyatt, a former agent known as the Sphinx, has spent years plotting revenge on Cotton Malone. Chasing a rumor of Nazi gold in a remote South American village, he uncovers a secret tied to Martin Bormann, Eva Braun, and a child whose existence could rewrite a dark chapter of history.

20

The Emperor's Tomb

by Steve Berry

2010

A chilling video of Cassiopeia Vitt being waterboarded drags Cotton Malone into a race that stretches from European cathedrals to China’s underground tombs. The key is an artifact linked to ancient Chinese oil technology, and whoever controls it could reshape the world’s energy future.

21

The Paris Vendetta

by Steve Berry

2009

A terrorist bombing pulls Cotton Malone into billionaire Henrik Thorvaldsen’s private vendetta against the man he blames for his son’s death. As they follow Napoléon’s hidden fortune through London and Paris, Cotton must choose between friendship and stopping a financial plot that could rock Europe.

22

The Charlemagne Pursuit

by Steve Berry

2008

Searching for the truth about his father’s death on a secret submarine mission, Cotton Malone joins forces with two German sisters whose own parent vanished on the same boat. Clues from Charlemagne’s tomb and Nazi expeditions lead them toward Antarctica and a deadly naval cover‑up.

23

The Venetian Betrayal

by Steve Berry

2007

After a brazen arson attack in Copenhagen, Cotton Malone and Cassiopeia Vitt chase stolen medallions tied to Alexander the Great. Their hunt uncovers a Central Asian dictator with a cache of designer plagues and a ruthless plot that could trigger a new world war.

24

The Alexandria Link

by Steve Berry

2007

When kidnappers target Cotton Malone’s teenage son, they demand the one thing only Malone knows—the route to the lost Library of Alexandria. To save his child, he races from Denmark to the Middle East through a conspiracy that could ignite the modern Holy Land.

25

The Templar Legacy

by Steve Berry

2006

Former Justice Department agent Cotton Malone is pulled out of his quiet Copenhagen bookshop when his ex‑boss is attacked while chasing a clue to the Knights Templar’s lost treasure, sending them across Europe after secrets that could shake the church.

Series background & context

At the heart of Steve Berry’s fiction is Cotton Malone, a former Justice Department operative who walked away from Washington to run a rare-book shop on a Copenhagen square. On the surface he sells old volumes to tourists and collectors. Underneath, he’s the person old contacts call when a problem is too delicate, too political, or too strange for ordinary channels. Each book drops him into a fresh crisis, so you can read the series in order or dip in almost anywhere.

Cotton’s background with the Magellan Billet, a covert unit inside the Justice Department, shapes the kind of work he takes on. He understands spies and diplomats, but he’s just as comfortable crawling through old churches or remote ruins with a map in hand. The stories live in the present day, yet the real engine is almost always a forgotten manuscript, treaty, or legend that someone powerful wants to exploit.

One adventure might revolve around lost Templar treasure and the secrets of Rennes‑le‑Château; another around the vanished Library of Alexandria, Alexander the Great’s tomb, Charlemagne’s buried legacy, or Napoléon’s rumored war chest. Later books tangle with Tudor succession myths, Abraham Lincoln’s private doubts about secession, the legality of the federal income tax, Cold War invasion plans for Canada, the Knights of the Golden Circle and their gold caches, the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., Nazi escape routes, or the fate of King Ludwig II of Bavaria.

Running through all of that history is a recurring cast. Stephanie Nelle, his old boss, keeps one foot in government and one in Cotton’s unofficial world. Cassiopeia Vitt, a wealthy adventurer with her own scars, often shares the danger—and sometimes the arguments. Friends like Danish billionaire Henrik Thorvaldsen and ex‑president Danny Daniels show up when the stakes turn political. What keeps the series grounded is how these relationships evolve, even as each novel stands alone with its own mystery.

The tone is brisk and contemporary: shootouts and chases, yes, but also puzzles, archives, and long conversations about what a piece of history really means.

Shorter works fill in the gaps. E‑originals such as The Balkan Escape, The Devil’s Gold, The Admiral’s Mark, The Devil’s Bones, The Devils’ Due, and crossovers like Past Prologue and Shadow Tag show Cotton earlier in his career, teaming up with other authors’ characters or tackling quick, dangerous jobs between the novels. Together they build a sense of a life lived on the margins of official power, where a single old document can still change the fate of a country.

Edited by

Richard Reis

Software engineer whose passion for tracking book recommendations from podcasts inspired the creation of MRB.

Anurag Ramdasan

Lead investor at 3one4 Capital whose startup expertise and love for books helped shaped MRB and its growth.

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All 25 Cotton Malone Books in Order (Complete List 2026)