The Bishop's Pawn

By: Steve Berry

Narrated by: Scott Brick, Kevin Free, Steve Berry

Length: 23 hrs and 30 mins

Publisher's summary

In this audiobook, Steve Berry and Macmillan Audio team up again to bring listeners an expanded, annotated Writer's Cut edition of The Bishop's Pawn. This Writer's Cut edition features fascinating behind-the-scenes commentary read by the author. If you'd like to listen to The Bishop's Pawn WITHOUT Steve Berry's commentary, just play the program from the beginning. To listen to the Writer's Cut version WITH Steve Berry's commentary, start with Download Part 2 at 11 hours, 39 minutes.

History recalls that the ugly feud between J. Edgar Hoover and Martin Luther King, Jr., - marked by years of illegal surveillance and the accumulation of secret files - ended on April 4, 1968, when King was assassinated by James Earl Ray. But that may not have been the case.

Now, 50 years later, former Justice Department agent Cotton Malone must reckon with the truth of what really happened that fateful day in Memphis.

It all turns on an incident from 18 years ago, when Malone, as a young navy lawyer, was trying hard not to live up to his burgeoning reputation as a maverick. When Stephanie Nelle, a high-level Justice Department lawyer, enlists him to help with an investigation, he jumps at the opportunity. But he soon discovers that two opposing forces, the Justice Department and the FBI, are at war over a rare coin and a cadre of secret files containing explosive revelations about the King assassination - information that could ruin innocent lives and threaten the legacy of the civil rights movement's greatest martyr.

Malone's decision to see it through to the end - from the raucous bars of Mexico to the clear waters of the Dry Tortugas and ultimately into the halls of power within Washington, DC, itself - changes not only his own life but the course of history.

Steve Berry always mines the lost riches of history; in The Bishop's Pawn, he imagines a gripping, provocative thriller about an American icon.

©2018 Magellan Billet, Inc (P)2018 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

"Scott Brick continues to bolster his status as one of the best narrators of international thrillers with his excellent reading of Berry's latest...Brick easily negotiates his way through this complex plot, his confident delivery keeps the suspense high while bringing a solid reality to a story that often walks a fine line between the believable and the improbable." — Publishers Weekly on The Venetian Betrayal

"Narrator Scott Brick's smooth voice flows with the twists and turns of Berry's political thriller...Secrets unravel, and tensions rise as Brick shifts vocal focus from the historical secret society to contemporary conspirators who include corrupt politicians and judges." — AudioFile Magazine on The Lost Order

I always enjoy creative historical fiction

I am a fan of the series. So, I was pleased to see it go a different direction into historical fiction. This was a nice break in the series. Of course Scott Brick does an amazing job bringing it to life (except for the MLK voice). Fun listen.

not his best work

liked the first person perspective, but the story was a bit slow for what I've come to expect of Steve Berry novels.

Not my favorite Steve Berry book

struggled to finish finally gave up. have enjoyed this authors other books not this one

Love the Cotton books!!

I love the whole series off Steve Berry books. They are captivating. This story was a little different. More of just a great twist you didn’t see coming. I think I like the action and mystery of the other books in the series better but it was interesting and unexpected all the way until the end!

If you like chase stories this is your book

The plot was fairly interesting, written in the Cotton Malone "first person" voice which made it a bit more compelling. If you're familiar with the MLK "I've been to the mountain top" speech, you can figure out how the last hour of the "reveal" plays out.

Lots of danger followed by running to the next place where a baddie finds them, rinse, wash repeat.

Scott Brick does his Scott Brick thing. A solid job if you like Scott Brick generally. Somehow they had recordings of MLK where he sounds like a middle-aged midwesterner. Go figure. I never knew MLK had an Iowa accent when he wasn't giving speeches. Maybe MLK was so iconic, they just punted on trying to imitate him? Just a weird artistic choice.

Parts I really liked, parts were repetitive. I wavered between 5 star parts and 3 star parts thinking about it so it's a 4 star for me. If I can listen to it at work, lose the thread because I was distracted, go back and listen to what I missed and wonder why I did that sometimes, yeah, it gets formulaic. So a solid effort, if unspectacular.

I LOVE Steve Berry

Awesome! Loved both the one with the commentary and without. Steve keep them coming.

A Look back to Cotton's Beginnnigs

Berry takes you into the world of MLK and the start of Cotton Malone and The Magellan Billet. Learn about what MLK was really like and why the FBI was obsessed with him. Berry weaves plausible theories on the death of MLK. Great Read!

Movie

Would love to see the movie. Thought provoking great read. I enjoyed the editors notes and read the story twice> I wanted more

A good education or refresher on MLK jr & the FBI as told by Cotton

The beginning was a bit convoluted and the ending a disappointment for historians and archivists. I thought Cotton had a better sense of how to handle restricted collections as the Librarian or keeper of the Great Library of Alexandria. The premise is interesting to consider and not totally outlandish. When combined with actual events, historical facts about Hoover and the FBI, and King’s own words, the result is an entertaining, worthwhile read. This was a little different than other Cotton Malone stories though and while he is very recognizable though young, I missed the more thoughtful older Cotton, Stephanie, Danny Daniels, and Cassiopeia that we are now familiar with. Also like others who grew up vacationing in Disney and taking kids and now grandkids there and having studied DisneyWorld ‘s architecture , I find this is one place where Berry fell short on research. It I’d well documented and it is easy to verify the actual rides and background scenery at Disney from 30 or even 40 years ago. There are numerous video tapes and easily obtainable souvenir books from the time not to mention larger books and studies, detailed drawings and blueprints, photos and old videos of many many families. “Pirates”;has been updated and revamped a few times since then as have other parts of the park and the nice disclaimer in the fact and fiction section at the end of the book seemed a bit of a cop out when other parts were so meticulously documented!

Interesting and exciting

What did you love best about The Bishop's Pawn?

Lots of action with twists and turns. The story has a lot of true facts with in it. Fast paced and exciting. Makes it hard to have to stop listening when necessary.

What other book might you compare The Bishop's Pawn to and why?

All of the Cotton Malone read very interesting, have a good exciting story line.

Have you listened to any of the narrators’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I have listened to quite a few narrated by him as I have listened to all of Steve Berry's books that are in audible form and this narrator is one of my favorite as he is easy to listen to.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

MLK death-fact or fiction

Any additional comments?

I like the true facts that Steve Berry's books contain. I find myself after I finish one of his books looking up info on the internet about things he has talked about in them.