The sequel to the wildly successful Midnight Ride, THE MISTRESS AND THE KEY by Ben Mezrich fell somewhat flat for me.

Hailey Gordon and Nick Patterson are back, this time in Philadelphia as they search for the connections and secrets between Benjamin Franklin and Paul Revere. Will the cavern beneath Jeff Pokowski’s construction site offer up any clues? And who is the Heiress and what does she know? As the two race against outside forces, namely the FBI and Boston PD, can they put the pieces together?

As noted, I did not enjoy this sequel as much as the original. It was somewhat interesting, however as I grew up and live just outside of Philadelphia and my mother spoke of Ben Franklin like he was her next door neighbour the whole time I was growing up. I’ll give some props for the location and the topic but I found my interest waning quite often. I’ll just consider this a one-off as I have enjoyed Ben Mezrich’s previous novels and will look forward to his next.

Thank you to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for this ARC opportunity. All opinions are my own and given voluntarily.

If you've read any of Ben Mezrich's nonfiction books, you'll know they have this edge-of-your-seat thriller quality that makes them impossible to put down. So, when I spotted "The Mistress and the Key," a fictional thriller with a history-fueled plot, I figured it was an automatic win. But, much to my surprise, the book was just… okay.

"The Mistress and the Key" is a "National Treasure"-style adventure, blending historical facts and theories in a way that feels very Dan Brown. It's a continuation of "The Midnight Ride"—something I only learned after finishing the book. Not realizing this upfront might've made me feel a bit untethered in the story. Had I read "The Midnight Ride," I might have been more grounded in the events that kicked off this adventure.

Don't get me wrong; the premise is intriguing, and I love Mezrich's knack for weaving historical tidbits into the narrative. But where the book fell flat for me was the characters. I just couldn't connect with them, and without that emotional investment, it's hard to feel fully swept away, even when the plot is charging full speed ahead.

There were fun moments, and I appreciated Mezrich's historical flourishes, but I couldn't help wishing he'd taken this same material and given us a nonfiction dive into Ben Franklin instead. Mezrich's nonfiction work is so vivid it often feels like fiction anyway, so why not lean into his strengths?

While "The Mistress and the Key" has its charms, I think I'll stick to Mezrich's nonfiction for my next read. This might be your jam for those who are already fans of "The Midnight Ride" or love a historical thriller with some big adventure energy. For me, it didn't quite hit the mark.

Thank you to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for the advanced reader's copy; all opinions expressed in this review are my own.

The Mistress and the Key by Ben Mezrich takes place immediately after the events of his book, The Midnight Ride.

"Hailey and Nick have just uncovered one of the biggest secrets of the Revolutionary War. Now they find themselves in Philadelphia - looking at connections between Paul Revere and Benjamin Franklin. The more they discover, the more shocking the implications become. There are some who want to keep the secrets buried - and will do anything to keep it that way."

Do you like a Dan Brown story? Taking historical figures, events and monuments and inventing a wild story about what really happened? You'll love this. Lots of famous people here, including Mozart and Gustav Eiffel. I never knew Eiffel's connection to the Statue of Liberty. Hailey and Nick continually race around and find more stuff. The action seldom lets up. The Family is a great bad-guy - almost a Bond-level villain.
Thought this was better than the last book. Lots of crazy action in this one.

An unlikely pair searches for a secret hidden within history

Hailey Gordon was working her way through a graduate level mathematics program at MIT using her skills with numbers to rack up wins at casinos. Nick Patterson was a street=smart thief recently released from a stint in prison who was trying to fence artwork from an infamous museum heist in Boston of years ago. Their paths crossed by accident (Hailey was evading casino security at the time), and decided to join forces in offloading the paintings. That decision has led them into a search to find a secret from Revolutionary War times that, if it proves true, could upend much of what people believe about that period in history. In this, the second stage of their quest (after the events that unfolded in author Ben Mezrich’s previous novel, The Midnight Ride), the pair is still dodging FBI Special Agent Zack Lindwell, who suspects that the trail of apparently missing art they are leaving behind is not the straight-out theft that it appears to be, as well as members of a shadowy group known as The Family, who have demonstrated that they have no problem with killing to get their hands on what Hailey and Nick are tracking down. With the help of history professor and noted expert on Paul Revere, Adrian Jensen, the path leads from Mr. Revere to Ben Franklin, from Boston to Philadelphia to New York, and will weave elements like the Liberty Bell and alchemy into the story along the way. Can they find out what it was that Revere, Franklin and others seem to have left behind for later generations to pursue before either the FBI and/or the Boston PD throw them in prison or The Family (and the mysterious woman known only as The Heiress) catches up to them, and removes them from the trail…permanently?
When I read the initial synopsis of this thriller, it immediately brought to mind the Cotton Malone series by Steve Berry and the Pendergast books by Lincoln Child and Douglas Preston, both of which are terrific series that combine twisty plots, quirky bits of history, and intriguing characters to provide a terrific read, with perhaps a dash of Dan Brown. The concept of this new series could prove similarly enjoyable, but in the end the storyline didn’t grab my interest in the same way. Having grown up and gone to college in the Boston area (thanks to the author for the shout out for my alma mater, Tufts), the setting and history were certainly ones with which I was quite familiar, and I was intrigued to see what might be made of them, but the characters felt a little flat and the plot just sort of chugged along. Those who have read the first book in the series will realize that, just as the end of that book was not the end of the quest, the culmination of the events in this installment is also only the end of this stage of the quest (which will continue along in the next book, it would seem). I found this to be a somewhat enjoyable read, neither horrible nor terrific. There are plenty of interesting tidbits about Ben Franklin’s accomplishments among other things, and new historical figures find their way into the mix as well. My thanks to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for allowing me early access to The Mistress and the Key.