Steve Berry wants you to shelve whatever you think you know about the Kennedy assassination. Or at least put it to the back of your mind while you’re reading The 9th Man, the first in an exciting writing partnership between Berry and co-author Grant Blackwood.
The novel — a crackling adventure thriller that deftly entertains readers — features Luke Daniels, an imperious young spy who works alongside Cotton Malone for the Magellan Billet. In his solo debut Daniels answers a 911 call from his old friend, Jillian Stein. He travels to Belgium where a shadow team of highly-trained operatives is on the hunt. But intervening not only puts Luke and his friend in danger, it knocks loose a new theory about what really happened on November 22, 1963. A theory some people would kill — again — to keep secret.
There’s a lot to unpack here, so let’s start with the obvious.
Of course fans of Berry’s work will recognize Luke Daniels — he first appeared in The Lincoln Myth and has peppered several of Cotton Malone’s stories since — but they may be surprised to see another author’s name on the cover of The 9th Man. Berry has meticulously carved out a niche for his bestselling Cotton Malone stories — in fact, according to his website, a Steve Berry novel is sold every thirty seconds somewhere in the world. Indeed, no one does history better.
So what prompted the new series?
“I’ve been wanting to do a Luke Daniels book for a long time,” Berry says. “He’s a younger version of Cotton so he makes mistakes, he jumps right in sometimes. I’ve always thought he should have his own book. The problem is I can’t write two books a year.”
Enter Grant Blackwood, a seasoned author and collaborator, having honed his chops with his own series, while also working with some of the best and most well-known thriller authors in the genre — James Rollins, Tom Clancy, Clive Cussler.
“Working with those authors taught me to be more well-rounded and flexible,” Blackwood says. “Steve made this experience hugely collaborative and it’s worked out really well.”
So well that the co-authors have already completed the second book in the series. But back to The 9th Man. Berry says the idea for it came to him years ago after reading a book by Bonar Menninger called Mortal Error. The book poses a fresh and intriguing theory on the assassination of President Kennedy — a series of facts that alone don’t mean much, but are extremely compelling when pieced together.
“At first when you look at the theory you think, this is a little crazy. But the more you think about it the more you start to think, ‘this is starting to make sense.’ Particularly with some things that happened afterwards that give greater credence to this theory,” Berry says. “We will never know what really happened on November 22. Everyone involved with that is dead. The investigations that were done afterward were terrible. The Warren Commission was horrendous — they basically didn’t investigate anything. They already had their conclusion and just wrote a report to go with it. The two congressional investigations were likewise biased. Mortal Error raises some fascinating questions that I knew would make a great thriller.”
Berry’s instincts — as per usual — were correct. But he also knew this wasn’t a Cotton Malone book, where “the thing from the past is really central to the whole plot.” For the Luke Daniels books, Berry wanted the “thing from the past” to go along for the ride with the action and adventure.
Again, that brings us back to Blackwood, who is known for writing some of the most taught action scenes in the genre. With those skills locked in, Blackwood says he set out to reorient himself with Berry’s work.
“I’m ashamed to admit I was a little behind on the Cotton Malone books so I picked them up and went through them to get a better sense of Luke and what he was about,” he says. “Steve and I discussed that we wanted this to be a growing experience for Luke, so I put that in my head and started thinking about how he could go from this imperious hard-charging Luke to someone who is a little more like Cotton. I think we found a really great balance.”
Blackwood pounded out a first draft based on a loose outline. Berry rewrote the book in a second draft to put in his voice and flesh out Luke. From there it went back and forth for tweaking and polishing, and eventually — though perhaps more quickly than you might think — the co-authors struck the perfect balance.
No question this is a Steve Berry book — the hallmarks of his incredible craft, attention to detail, and narrative balance are well on display. This is everything you love about Cotton, without the physical presence of Cotton. But with The 9th Man Blackwood adds his own “spin” and the result is somehow both familiar and fresh — and most importantly, incredibly entertaining.
The two have little time to celebrate though. The first draft of Luke Daniels Book 2 is nearly complete — Red Star Falling will delve into the lost library of Ivan the Terrible — and Berry is gearing up to release another Cotton Malone thriller, The Atlas Maneuver, in February 2024. Meanwhile, Blackwood will get started on another Luke Daniels adventure.
It’s more than enough to keep the two busy, but Berry says Daniels may not be the only character primed for a breakout role.
“I’d really like to do more of these,” he says. “I’m at a point where I would like to branch out. But I’d need some help. I may not write every word, but I’m like the producer, the director, and the casting agent. I’m involved in all of it.”
Safe to say, readers wouldn’t want it any other way.
About the authors:
Steve Berry was born and raised in Georgia, graduating from the Walter F. George School of Law at Mercer University. He was a trial lawyer for 30 years and held elective office for 14 of those years. He is a founding member of International Thriller Writers — a group of nearly 6,000 thriller writers from around the world — and served three years as its co-president.
The New York Times bestselling author of the Briggs Tanner series, (END OF ENEMIES, WALL OF NIGHT, and ECHO OF WAR) Grant Blackwood is also the co-author of the Fargo Adventure Series (SPARTAN GOLD, LOST EMPIRE, and THE KINGDOM) with Clive Cussler, as well as the co-author of the #1 NYT bestseller, DEAD OR ALIVE, with Tom Clancy, THE KILL SWITCH, with James Rollins.
A U. S. Navy veteran, Grant spent three years aboard a guided missile frigate as an Operations Specialist and a Pilot Rescue Swimmer.
Grant lives in Colorado, where he is working his own standalone series starring a new hero.
