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Summary
Summary
For five hundred years a despotic order of the supremely rich and powerful has kept a little known manuscript by the political thinker Niccolo Machiavelli hidden away under heavy guard: "THE COVENANT," a terrifying blueprint for the gaining and keeping of true political power. Bonded by complicity in ritual murder and dedicated to a singular vision of global domination, the group, guided by Machiavelli's document, has prospered far beyond any dreams of power and avarice.
In Washington, D.C., former LAPD detective Nicholas Marten comes out of hiding when he learns his former girlfriend, her child and husband, a U.S. congressman, have been mysteriously murdered. Marten discovers her husband had just uncovered a top-secret and illegal bioweapons program, and when the feds fail to investigate, Marten resolves to go after the killers himself.
Meanwhile, on his way to a NATO summit in Warsaw, President John Henry Harris is confronted by a secret cabal inside his own White House who demand he authorize the assassinations of the Chancellor of Germany and the President of France at the NATO meeting. He angrily refuses, knowing full well that in doing so he has put his own life and the fate of the country in jeopardy.
Fleeing for his life, Harris joins forces with Marten and the beautiful but enigmatic French photo-journalist Demi Picard. Together they uncover the truth about the most devastating and powerful group the world has ever known. Swept from Washington to Paris, from Berlin to Malta, Madrid to Barcelona they flee a ruthless circle of the president's here-to-fore most trusted advisors, military leaders and transnational corporate chieftains all of whom want them dead. Out manned, outnumbered and outgunned, these three stand alone against the age-old secrets of "THE COVENANT."
Author Notes
Allan Folsom was born on December 9, 1941 in Orlando, Florida. He received a BS from Boston University in 1963. He moved to California, where he worked as a delivery driver, a film editor, and a camera operator. He wrote scripts for the television series Untamed World, Hart to Hart, and Sable, and the screenplay for the television film Desperate Intruder.
His first novel, The Day after Tomorrow, published in 1994. He was paid approximately two million dollars for the book. His other works included Day of Confession, The Exile, The Machiavelli Covenant, and The Hadrian Memorandum. He died from metastatic melanoma on May 16, 2014 at the age of 72.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Nicholas Marten, the ex-LAPD detective who played a major role in Folsom's The Exile (2004), pursues an international conspiracy in this frenetic page-turner long on action but short on plausibility. When an old love of Marten's, Caroline Parsons, dies of a mysterious infection shortly after her congressman husband and son perish in a plane accident, her dying words set Marten on the trail of a South African bioterrorist. The former cop soon finds himself allied with another man trying to foil a cabal bent on creating a new world order-the U.S. president himself, John Henry Harris. Harris flees his Secret Service protection after rejecting the plan of virtually his whole cabinet to assassinate the leaders of France and Germany and replace them with people willing to launch biological warfare on most of the Middle East. Unconvincing hairbreadth escapes and the failure to explore underlying political issues make for a routine thriller. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Latter-day witches strive for world domination in this latest swollen thriller from Folsom. Niccol¿ Machiavelli, that 16th-century master of political manipulation, left a posthumous addendum to The Prince, some say, dubbed The Machiavelli Covenant. Supposedly, it made the case for a kind of super-coven, something to serve as the engine for the seizing and maintaining of power. Having spawned the arcane rituals and related darksome things a certain class of witch has always shown an affinity for, this witch's elite began drawing to it the best and brightest of those of a megalomaniacal bent. Consider, for instance, the goings-on in the White House, where suddenly a contemporary U.S. president experiences the sting of betrayal when virtually his entire inner circle turns rogue. What gives? Is he surrounded by witches? Are his chief of staff, his secretary of defense, his national security advisor and, yes, even his vice president, secret signatories to the pernicious Covenant? A puzzlement. But one thing President John Henry Harris does know is that no matter how useful in the war against terrorism the act is purported to be, he's not about to issue orders for the assassinations of the president of France or the chancellor of Germany. That being the case--and to avoid his predatory brain trust--he goes on the run. Also on the run, in a manner of speaking, is ex-cop Nicholas Marten (The Exile, 2004). Soon enough, the two connect, find common ground as witchophobes and, with luck and pluck, earn the thanks of a grateful planet. Wearisomely protracted. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Folsom takes Nicholas Marten, the ex-cop hero of The Exile (2004), and plunks him down in this clunky thriller, which might strike some readers as a blatant attempt to capitalize on the success of The Da Vinci Code and other historical-conspiracy thrillers. The plot is convoluted: Marten's former girlfriend is murdered, and as Marten tries to find out whodunit, he hooks up with a beautiful French journalist and (of all people) the president of the U.S., who happens to be on the run from members of his own cabinet. Together the trio tries to unravel a modern plot based on the secret writings of Niccolo Machiavelli. Folsom proved he can handle a wildly improbable thriller in his first novel, The Day after Tomorrow (1994), but he sets himself a sterner task this time, throwing some clumsy dialogue on top of a plot that never quite overcomes its own inherent implausibilities. Still, Folsum excels at ratcheting up the action, and he does so here, generating more than enough excitement to please those who like high-concept plots enough not to question them. --David Pitt Copyright 2006 Booklist
Library Journal Review
At least seven men in the U.S. president's cabinet are members of a cabal, which turns out to be a coven with at least 200 "major world players" who take part in annual ritual sacrifices. They want to assassinate the leaders of France and Germany, then launch a biological war against Muslim states. Why? Because the two European powers failed to support the U.S. invasion of Iraq, and the cabal fears that jihadists might strike Saudi Arabia "one night." If they did, "In less than thirty-six hoursArabia would fall, then Kuwait, then Iraq and Iran, Syria and probably Jordan." The flow of oil to the West would stop, "just like that." Learning this, the president goes on the run. Fortunately, he has his toupee with him. Add to Folsom's (The Exile) brew an assassin who plans to kill three presidents with a single shot, a female photojournalist who learns that 27 other women in her family have been sacrificial victims, andenough. As the president says, the situation "borders on the impossible if not the absurd," though he later claims this is "not fiction"; this is "real." Some thrillers are so gripping that one forgives bad writing; this novel-clich?d, repetitive, melodramatic, filled with insipid prose and mistranslations of foreign languages-is not one of them. Emphatically not recommended.-Ron Terpening, Univ. of Arizona, Tucson (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.