A complicated conspiracy thriller which begins with our hero sitting beside his childhood love as she dies of a mysterious disease, leading him to a South African bioterrorist who's involved with a secret society bent on creating a new world order. Along the way he teams up with a French journalist, the President of the United States (who's fleeing that very same New World Order Gang in his own administration), and an Australian ex-pat living in Italy who acts as Sancho Panza to their Don Quixote. Hopefully unrealistic to the point of absurdity, I don't know why I kept reading - except that somehow Folsom managed to keep me wanting, if not more, then to at least find out how it would all end. Truly a potato-chip book: read it, enjoy it, and barely remember it by next week. ( )

The Machiavelli Covenant, by Allan Folsom, is a conspiracy thriller that follows Nicholas Marten - a former LAPD detective - as he searches for answers in the death of a former girlfriend. Along the way, he meets up with the President of the United States, on the run from a murderous cabal made up of the rich and powerful, and Demi Picard, a French journalist who is searching for the truth behind the disappearance of a family member. As the story unfolds, we discover that all of these events are intertwined and are leading to the unraveling of various governments around the world.

There is no doubt the story is far-fetched, which was part of the appeal to me (sometimes escape literature is a good thing). However, I found the pacing of the story somewhat uneven, the writing rather stodgy, and the characterizations slight and ineffective. The plot started out moving along pretty well, but the scenes in the tunnels seemed to last forever. I didn't really connect with any of the characters - probably the character I felt I knew the most about was Viktor, a bit player in the story. The Machiavelli Covenant was a diverting enough read for the business trip I just took, but I wouldn't highly recommend it. ( )

A conspiracy thriller, but not that believable... ( )

This is the first book I've read by Allan Folsom and it will probably be my last. The storyline was intriguing and it was what led me to decide to read the book. It is your typical global conspiracy story of the shadowy organization seeking political and world power, with a few hardy heroes (in this case, the President of the United States, a former LAPD detective with a new identity, and a French journalist) determined in bringing the group's evil designs to light.

So the plot idea wasn't the problem (it's also not that original, but every author can bring their own twist to it). It was the execution of the story that was mediocre and what I considered a very poor and amateur effort.

At first, I couldn't figure out what exactly about the book annoyed me, but as I continued to read, I realized what it was. The writing was flat and passive, with the writing style very simple, maybe too simple. Maybe it's a preference of mine, but I think a more complex, rich and active writing style would have made the story more interesting. Sentences were wooden and choppy, with the scene changes not flowing well together. The characters are lifeless and you are told the story instead of experiencing it with the characters.

I wanted an active voice in the main characters, some life and real emotion being shown would have been nice. For instance, you really don't feel the main character's emotions or thoughts. You don't get to know the characters at all, and I felt very dispassionate and detached from the characters. Even a detailed description of the background scenery or location would have been nice, but again, here you are told the description.

As a result, you can't really dive deep into the story and be there with the characters. You aren't a part of the author's fictional world. I felt this was a big issue with me reading this book as I am the type of reader that fully becomes a part of the story. I cry, laugh, or get angry with the characters and that is what makes a book great in my opinion. This book makes you read from a distance, you don't get the full immersion into the story, and as a result I felt the book to be very boring. ( )

This was one of those odd books that was a decently well-written thriller that just couldn't quite make it over the "too implausible" hump. The basic premise to bring together the two protagonists (one in particular) just didn't work for me. Also, I'm not quite sure why Folsom decided to make this a sequel to The Exile as the Nicholas Marten character could have been anybody rather than a returning character. With one exception, most of the open plot elements from The Exile were ignored or only briefly referenced. Folsom writes a good thriller (especially his first, The Day After Tomorrow), but The Machiavelli Covenant was a little bit too much thriller-by-the-numbers. ( )