The Columbus Affair

No one knows when he was born, where he was raised, or how he was educated. No true portrait of him exists. He was an experienced seaman and expert navigator, but wasn’t trained as either. No firsthand account of his legendary exploits survives. Even his grave remains a mystery, as his bones have never been found. He was called by many names—Columb, Colom, Colón—but most know him as Christopher Columbus. Many questions about him exist, but none have been properly answered. And then there is the greatest secret of all. From New York Times bestselling author Steve Berry comes an exciting new adventure. Pulitzer Prize–winning investigative journalist Tom Sagan has written hard-hitting articles from hot spots around the world. But when a controversial report from a war-torn region is exposed as a fraud, his professional credibility crashes and burns. Now he lives in virtual exile—haunted by bad decisions and the shocking truth he can never prove: that his downfall was a deliberate act of sabotage by an unknown enemy. But before Sagan can end his torment with the squeeze of a trigger, fate intervenes in the form of an enigmatic stranger with a request that cannot be ignored. Zachariah Simon has the look of a scholar, the soul of a scoundrel, and the zeal of a fanatic. He also has Tom Sagan’s estranged daughter at his mercy. Simon desperately wants something only Sagan can supply: the key to a 500-year-old mystery, a treasure with explosive political significance in the modern world. For Sagan, this mission could be his last chance to heal the broken bond with his only child and redeem his shattered reputation. For Zachariah Simon, the stakes are even greater, the goal intensely personal, the consequences of opposing him catastrophic. On a perilous quest from Florida to Vienna to Prague and finally to the mountains of Jamaica, the two men square off in a dangerous game. Along the way, both of their lives will forever be altered—and everything we know about Christopher Columbus will change.