Reading order · 20 books · 2006 to 2026 · Set in Copenhagen
Cotton Malone Books in Order
Cotton Malone is a former agent of the Magellan Billet, a small, secret unit of the US Justice Department, who has retired to run a rare-book shop in Copenhagen. Old colleagues and old secrets keep dragging him back, into adventures that blend real history, lost treasures and present-day conspiracies.
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Series facts
- Books
- 20
- Published
- 2006 to 2026
- First book
- The Templar Legacy
- Latest
- The Devil’s Bible (2026)
- Setting
- Set in Copenhagen
The reading order
Every Cotton Malone book in publication order. Choose a title for its cast and summary.
20 books · Set in Copenhagen
- 1The Templar Legacy2006With Cotton MaloneCotton Malone’s old boss, Stephanie Nelle, comes to Copenhagen and is attacked, and Malone is drawn into her search for the lost treasure and secret knowledge of the Knights Templar, which leads to the south of France.Buy on Amazon
- 2The Alexandria Link2007With Cotton MaloneCotton Malone’s son Gary is kidnapped, and the price of his release is the Alexandria Link, a secret Malone once protected, which may lead to the lost library of Alexandria.Buy on Amazon
- 3The Venetian Betrayal2007With Cotton MaloneThe ambitious ruler of a new Central Asian federation is searching for the lost tomb of Alexander the Great, and Cotton Malone is drawn into a race across Europe with biological weapons at stake.Buy on Amazon
- 4The Charlemagne Pursuit2008With Cotton MaloneCotton Malone sets out to learn the truth about his father, a naval officer who died when his submarine was lost decades ago.Buy on Amazon
- 5The Paris Vendetta2009With Cotton MaloneCotton Malone’s friend Henrik Thorvaldsen, bent on revenge for his son’s murder, targets the Paris Club, a group of rich men manipulating world markets, and the search for Napoleon’s lost treasure.Buy on Amazon
- 6The Emperor’s Tomb2010With Cotton MaloneCassiopeia Vitt is captured in China, and her captors want an artefact that Cotton Malone does not have.Buy on Amazon
- 7The Jefferson Key2011With Cotton MaloneCotton Malone stops an assassination attempt on the President in New York and finds himself drawn into the secrets of the founding fathers and a group of modern-day privateers with letters of marque from the early republic.Buy on Amazon
- 8The King’s Deception2013With Cotton MaloneCotton Malone is escorting a teenage fugitive back to London with his son Gary when he is caught up in an intelligence operation linked to a secret about Queen Elizabeth I.Buy on Amazon
- 9The Lincoln Myth2014With Cotton MaloneCotton Malone is drawn into a plot involving the Mormon church and a secret Abraham Lincoln kept about whether a state may leave the Union.Buy on Amazon
- 10The Patriot Threat2015With Cotton MaloneCotton Malone is pulled into a race from Venice to Croatia after a rogue North Korean may have stolen secret Treasury files that could cast doubt on the legality of the American income tax.Buy on Amazon
- 11The 14th Colony2016With Cotton MaloneA rogue former Russian intelligence officer plans to strike at the heart of the United States on inauguration day, using a Cold War plan and a flaw in the rules of presidential succession.Buy on Amazon
- 12The Lost Order2017With Cotton MaloneMalone searches for the hidden gold of the Knights of the Golden Circle, a secret society from before the American Civil War, as rival factions fight over it.Buy on Amazon
- 13The Bishop’s Pawn2018With Cotton MaloneYears before the series began, a young Cotton Malone is a junior agent sent on a mission linked to the FBI and the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr in 1968.Buy on Amazon
- 14The Malta Exchange2019With Cotton MaloneAs cardinals gather to elect a new pope, Cotton Malone is in Italy looking for documents linked to Mussolini, which could shape the future of the Catholic Church.Buy on Amazon
- 15The Warsaw Protocol2020With Cotton MaloneMalone is sent to steal a holy relic from a Polish castle, as the price of entry to a secret auction selling damaging information about Poland’s president.Buy on Amazon
- 16The Kaiser’s Web2021With Cotton MaloneTwo rival candidates for German Chancellor share secrets tied to the last days of Hitler’s bunker in 1945, and Malone investigates what really happened.Buy on Amazon
- 17The Last Kingdom2023With Cotton MaloneCotton Malone is drawn into a hunt across Bavaria for a secret left by King Ludwig II, the fairytale king of the nineteenth century.Buy on Amazon
- 18The Atlas Maneuver2024With Cotton MaloneA simple favour for a friend in Switzerland turns violent, and Malone is caught between one of the world’s oldest banks and the CIA over a hidden hoard of gold plundered in the Second World War.Buy on Amazon
- 19The Medici Return2025With Cotton MaloneMalone hunts a centuries-old Vatican debt, now worth a fortune, and the trail leads to Tuscany and the Medici family, long believed to have died out.Buy on Amazon
- 20The Devil’s Bible2026With Cotton MaloneBuy on Amazon
Do you need to read them in order?
Each book is a complete adventure, but Malone’s relationships, especially with Cassiopeia Vitt and his son Gary, develop across the series, so publication order works best. The Bishop’s Pawn goes back to Malone’s early career.
Who appears in which book
The series’ main characters, book by book. Lead means the book is told around them; minor covers cameos.
| Book | Cotton Malone | Stephanie Nelle | Gary Malone | Cassiopeia Vitt | Danny Daniels | Luke Daniels | Henrik Thorvaldsen |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 The Templar Legacy | LLead | MMajor | ·Minor | MMajor | MMajor | ||
| 2 The Alexandria Link | LLead | MMajor | MMajor | ·Minor | MMajor | ||
| 3 The Venetian Betrayal | LLead | MMajor | ·Minor | MMajor | ·Minor | MMajor | |
| 4 The Charlemagne Pursuit | LLead | MMajor | ·Minor | MMajor | ·Minor | MMajor | |
| 5 The Paris Vendetta | LLead | MMajor | ·Minor | MMajor | ·Minor | MMajor | |
| 6 The Emperor’s Tomb | LLead | MMajor | ·Minor | MMajor | ·Minor | MMajor | |
| 7 The Jefferson Key | LLead | MMajor | ·Minor | MMajor | ·Minor | MMajor | |
| 8 The King’s Deception | LLead | MMajor | ·Minor | MMajor | ·Minor | ||
| 9 The Lincoln Myth | LLead | MMajor | ·Minor | MMajor | ·Minor | MMajor | |
| 10 The Patriot Threat | LLead | MMajor | ·Minor | MMajor | ·Minor | MMajor | |
| 11 The 14th Colony | LLead | MMajor | ·Minor | MMajor | ·Minor | MMajor | |
| 12 The Lost Order | LLead | MMajor | ·Minor | MMajor | ·Minor | MMajor | |
| 13 The Bishop’s Pawn | LLead | MMajor | ·Minor | MMajor | ·Minor | MMajor | |
| 14 The Malta Exchange | LLead | MMajor | ·Minor | MMajor | ·Minor | MMajor | |
| 15 The Warsaw Protocol | LLead | MMajor | ·Minor | MMajor | ·Minor | MMajor | |
| 16 The Kaiser’s Web | LLead | MMajor | ·Minor | MMajor | ·Minor | MMajor | |
| 17 The Last Kingdom | LLead | MMajor | ·Minor | MMajor | ·Minor | MMajor | |
| 18 The Atlas Maneuver | LLead | MMajor | ·Minor | MMajor | ·Minor | MMajor | |
| 19 The Medici Return | LLead | MMajor | ·Minor | MMajor | ·Minor | MMajor | |
| 20 The Devil’s Bible | LLead | MMajor | ·Minor | MMajor | ·Minor | MMajor |
Characters in the Cotton Malone books
7 characters from Steve Berry’s chart, with the number of Cotton Malone books each appears in.
| Character | Books | First in this series |
|---|---|---|
| Cotton MaloneFormer Magellan Billet agent turned Copenhagen bookseller | 20 | The Templar Legacy 2006 |
| Stephanie NelleHead of the Magellan Billet, Malone’s former boss | 20 | The Templar Legacy 2006 |
| Gary MaloneCotton’s son | 20 | The Templar Legacy 2006 |
| Cassiopeia VittWealthy adventurer and Malone’s partner | 19 | The Templar Legacy 2006 |
| Danny DanielsUS President, later former President | 19 | The Alexandria Link 2007 |
| Luke DanielsYoung agent, nephew of the President | 12 | The Lincoln Myth 2014 |
| Henrik ThorvaldsenDanish billionaire and Malone’s friend | 7 | The Templar Legacy 2006 |