Book Review: The Patriot Threat by Steve Berry

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As I noted in my earlier review of Berry's The Lincoln Myth, Berry is a master at taking historical facts as well as myths, adding a dash of creative license, and coming up with plausible thriller.

I had a mixed reaction to The Lincoln Myth - I liked its discussion of the Lincoln myth and how the Civil War was fought to prevent the South seceding rather than to abolish slavery. And I liked its discussion of the constitution as it relates to the issue of secession. Berry firmly believes that secession is a viable option and that the founding fathers never meant for a state to be locked into the union forever. But I was disappointed with the ending - an ending that was Orwellian in its implications with the government purging historical documents that were inconvenient and for the deliberate murder of an innocent man who knew too much.

Nevertheless, Berry is a fascinating writer who digs into history and reveals some interesting and little known facts. The Patriot Threat digs into the possibility that the 16th Amendment, which authorized the income tax, was passed illegally and is, in fact, null and void.

The story revolves around a book written by a tax evader who has been on the run for three years. The book is called The Patriot Threat and deals with the whole 16th Amendment issue. He had raised the issue at his trial but was convicted anyway and he had managed to escape the United States before he was taken into custody. The judge had told him his defense was intriguing but without substantive proof, it failed.

But now on the run, Anan Wayne Howell, the tax evader, has come into possession of documents that provide a clue to finding the proof needed to substantiate his argument.

That proof had been hidden away in a secret location by Andrew Mellon, the multi-millionaire and former Secretary of the Treasury. Mellon had met with President Franklin Roosevelt on the last day of December 1936 to discuss details of a gift to the nation - the National Gallery of Art. The progressive Roosevelt hated Mellon as a symbol of all that was wrong with capitalism and Mellon despised Roosevelt as an example of what founding father George Mason had warned about - a tyrannical aristocrat. In his recounting of this true event, Berry adds the fictional twist of a taunt in the form of a cryptic code on a piece of paper Mellon gives the President. He hints that the clue, if solved, will lead to "something that can end both you and your New Deal".

That something, of course is the substantive proof that Howell needs to prove his innocence.

Now into this mix, Berry throws a new wrinkle. A North Korean by the name of Kim Yong Jin, brother of dictator Kim Jong-un. Although a fictional character, Kim Yong Jin is based on Kim Jong-un's real life brother Kim Jong-nam. Jong-nam was the older sibling and had been slated to become President after the death of Kim Jong-il. But Jong-nam had been discredited and removed from the line of succession after n ill-fated attempt to visit Tokyo Disneyland on forged passports. The younger brother now was first in line and did, in fact, succeed to the Presidency where he remains today, taunting the west with his nuclear missile tests. (If this seems stranger than fiction, please note that it is, in fact true. The fiction is the action of the fictional Kim in the novel. But the back story of fictional Kim is entirely based on fact.

Under a pseudonym, the disgraced Kim has read Howell's book and contacted him. Howell had contacted a Treasury employee named Lark who was more loyal to the truth than to the government (a sort of Treasury version of Edward Snowden) and smuggled out documents including the cryptic note Mellon gave Roosevelt which had never been decoded. The three - Howell, Larks and Kim were to meet on a cruise ship in the Adriatic where Larks would hand over the documents and Howell would work on deciphering the code. Kim believed that with the knowledge gained he could effectively bankrupt both the United States and Chin, which holds the majority of U.S. Treasury debt. This would enable Kim to overthrow his brother and take over North Korea.

That is the bare bones of the stage set for the story, which has Cotton Malone, Luke Daniels and Treasury agent Isabelle Schaeffer tracking down Howell, Lark and Kim to retrieve the documents.

That's a pretty good story but it is not the best part of the story. There is a sub-plot which is far more engaging than the story itself and introduces the most poignant and tragic figure I have come across in fiction in a while. Kim is accompanied by his daughter, 23 year old Hana Sung.

Hana Sung was born in one of North Korea's prison camps. Her mother was one of Kim Yong Jin's lovers, disappeared to the camp by Kim when she became too cloying and wanted to be more than just a lover. Unbeknownst to Kim, she was pregnant at the time.

Berry relates Hana Sung's backstory which is based on Blaine Harden's book Escape From Camp 14, an account of life in the camps through the eyes of Shin In Geun, the only person known to have escaped from one. The account, told by flashbacks, is horrific beyond belief.

At age nine, her father had learned of her existence and had her released from the camp. When he was disgraced and went into exile in Macao, she was the only one of his children who remained loyal and went with him. Now she is still with him on this quest.

But Hana Sung's memories of the camp continue to haunt her, including why she was there in the first place. Her mother told her but she didn't believe it. She hated her mother and blamed her for her life in the camp. But what her mother told her comes back to her and there is a final confrontation between daughter and father. It is also the climax of the story.

Hana Sung's story is powerful and meaningful in a way the rest of the story isn't. She is the only character in the story that I truly cared about.

The denouement unravels the loose ends and, like the ending of The Lincoln Myth, was a disappointment.

There are paragraphs in the book that reveal the ultimate immorality of government as an institution. One is when Malone kills one of the government's enemies.

"He knew Stephanie Nelle (his boss) wanted this problem eliminated. She hadn't said as much, and never would she. Officially the United States did not resort to assassination. But it happened. All the time."

The other occurs after Stephanie Nelle had destroyed the "substantive evidence".

"Nothing remained that could cause them any problems. When she and Levy burned what Mellon lef, they effectively ended everything. Was it the ethical thing to do? Probably not. But it was certainly the smart play. Little could be gained by raising questions about the 16th Amendment. The United States of America was a world power and nothing could be allowed to interfere with that status." (Emphasis added)

By those paragraphs, Berry again undercuts his heroes as immoral opportunists who kowtow to their government masters rather than stand for truth and integrity. I do not know if Berry is deliberately doing this, if he is trying to show how feckless government is. Or if he sees them as heroes who bend their principles in favour of what they see as a higher good.

To me, Malone's brushing off the assassination of an enemy as a "ho hum, it happens," and Nelle's brushing off the destruction of inconvenient historical artifacts as "probably not ethical but..." is disturbing. Sadly, it is undoubtedly true to life. Governments, as a matter of course, routinely discard ethics for expediency.

Berry's books explore fascinating episodes in history and adds a "what if" twist. He is a brilliant plot crafter. His books have great depth. His postcripts suggest he is sympathetic to the causes of the supposed villains in the stories. He was sympathetic to the cause of secession as a state's right in The Lincoln Myth. He is sympathetic to the idea that the 16th Amendment may be illegal as well as coming out foursquare for lower taxes, endorsing Mellon's book Taxation: The People's Business which argues that lower taxes are better than higher taxes. He redeems Anan Wayne Howell and Hana Sung in the book.

Indeed, to some extent, the villains are the heroes of these two books and the heroes are the villains. Berry is an enigma. But I will likely read more of the Cotton Malone books just because they are so cleverly plotted and are endlessly fascinating.

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