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This is the third book in the long-running Cotton Malone series about a former Justice Department agent who has retired to sell old books in Copenhagen but keeps getting dragged into archeological and geopolitical conspiracies. I read the previous one not long ago, but while there are recurring characters, each book seems to be a separate adventure.

Cotton’s friend Cassiopeia is investigating a series of arson attacks in small museums across Europe, as someone appears to be collecting rare coins from Ancient Greece. Cotton is drawn in to help and, together with Henryk and Stephanie from the last book, they uncover a plot involving the ruthless Supreme Minister of the (fictional) Central Asian Republic, whose obsession with Alexander the Great is pushing her to try and expand her territory through the release of a killer virus.

I’ve been interested in one day travelling to Central Asia for a while, and by complete coincidence ended up watching an episode of a BBC reality TV show called Race Across the World, where pairs of competitors travelled overland (and sea) from Baku to Tashkent. Some of them stopped in Samarkand (Uzbekistan) which I had heard of but never seen images of, so it was strange to pick this up a few days later and discover that not only is Samarkand one of the major locations, it also includes a detailed description of the barbaric game of Buzkashi, like polo but with a decapitated goat carcass instead of a ball, that was also featured on the TV show.

Anyway, this was another competently written fast-paced adventure, with a nonsensical premise, diabolical baddies willing to let millions die for profit/glory, double-crossing each other left right and centre, and a medically implausible wonder cure. I knew virtually nothing about Alexander the Great so that was interesting - once again the author reveals which bits are real and which he made up in the afterword.

My biggest complaint is that Cotton is completely devoid of personality, has no sense of humour and shows no emotion - but he’s not a psychopath, I just think the author only writes people in 2D. I would read more from this series if I come across cheap copies but won’t be in a rush to hunt them down as there are too many other series with much more interesting protagonists.
3.5 rounded up for the entertainment value of the action and the historical snippets.