Lendle

#2 National Bestseller. In the vein of Steve Berry."The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” Thomas Jefferson 1787.The 4th of July 1826. As Thomas Jefferson lies dying, he gives his part of his Jefferson Cipher to Edgar Allen Poe, with instructions to take the disks to West Point. In Massachusetts, John Adams entrusts his part of the Cipher to Colonel Thayer, the superintendent of the Military Academy. As Thayer rides away, Adams utters his final words: “Thomas Jefferson survives.”In the present, Green Beret Paul Ducharme has been recalled from Afghanistan after the ‘accidental’ death of his best friend, the son of one of the Philosophers. While Ducharme is visiting his friend’s gravesite in Arlington, an old man is executed by a member from the Society of Cincinnati known as the Surgeon, who is seeking to gather all the pieces of the cipher. In a nearby restaurant, former CIA and now Curator at Monticello, Evie Tolliver, waits anxiously for her mentor to arrive, but he’s killed by the same assassin at the Zero Milestone. His heart and the Philosopher’s head are displayed as a grisly message on top of the stone, echoing Jefferson’s famous head-heart letter.Ducharme and Tolliver, the unknowing heirs to become the next generation of caretakers of the Jefferson Allegiance, team up and must battle the Surgeon to assemble the Cipher and find the Jefferson Allegiance, a document that has kept the balance of power in the United States for over two centuries.THE FACTS:The Society of the Cincinnati was founded in May of 1783. A leading member was Alexander Hamilton, and the first President of the Society was George Washington. Thomas Jefferson was not allowed membership. The Society of the Cincinnati is the oldest, continuous military society in North America. It has its current headquarters at the Anderson House in downtown Washington, DC.In 1802, President Thomas Jefferson, well known for his strong opposition to a standing army, established the United State Military Academy, the oldest Military Academy in North America. In 1819, Thomas Jefferson founded the University of Virginia, the first college in the United States to separate religion from education. He was a member of the American Philosophical Society. It has its current headquarters in Philosophical Hall on Liberty Square in Philadelphia.Kirkus Reviews: “Fascinating, imaginative and nerve-wracking. Mayer’s tough, businesslike soldiers again include a tough, businesslike female.”