The Medici Return Audiobook By Steve Berry cover art

The Medici Return

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The Medici Return

By: Steve Berry
Narrated by: Scott Brick
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From celebrated New York Times bestselling author Steve Berry comes the latest installment in his wildly popular Cotton Malone series, in which Cotton must solve a five hundred year-old mystery—now in development as a streaming series.

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 Action & Adventure International Mystery & Crime Mystery Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Thriller & Suspense Pope Italy
Fascinating Historical Details • Intriguing Plot Twists • Captivating Voice • Fast-paced Action • Educational Content
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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.

Cotton Malone is back

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

Great mix of reality and fiction

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I usually fully love a Cotton Malone novel but this one was half-baked for me. I was okay with all of the history and lore involving the Catholic Church. They have enough terrible history to result in good storytelling. For the most part I was okay with the mystery elements. I was not okay with how the narration flowed. The transition from person to person was not great at all. Most characters sounded the same and it took a few seconds to realize who was talking. I found that most annoying. Honestly my three stars are generous. I absolutely. hated the ending. I think it was a terrible way to so called resolve things. I can’t say more than that without giving away too much . This is not how you resolve a mystery. Darnit.

Mixed Feelings

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Amazing story and history lesson. It was very entertaining. Cotton does it again! Is he back at the billet…

Story and narrator

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Great storyline with intriguing characters and dangerous plots all leading back to the church which kept my interest very high!

Outstanding

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Dislike the reader’s overly dramatic style. The book seems horribly overwritten throughout. And it requires total suspension of one’s credibility to swallow much of the plot’s twists and turns.

Pathetically overwritten!

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

outstanding

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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

Interesting, storyline and plot

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I’ve read most of Steve Berry’s books and enjoyed them for their historical value and faced-paced plots. But not so with The Medici Returns.The writing was overblown and the story was just plain boring. After starting it twice, I returned it.

Big disappointment

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I always enjoy listening to a Cotton Malone book. Each adventure never disappoints me. However, I had difficulty understanding the narrator, Scott Brick, different character voices. I had to figure out which character was speaking based on what was being said.

Learning history

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