We discussed the book The Jefferson Key by Steve Berry. Members of the group rated the book as follows: #4=3 members, #3= 1 member, #2= 1 member and 1 person was not able to finish the book. Comments included that some had difficulty following all the different characters. Most of the chapters were short and therefore made it generally readable. Anna and Leigh who have read previous books by the author noted that this was not his best book in their opinions since it did not include as much historic background as normal. Mary Ann didn’t like the amount of violence and fighting included in the story.

The book is a story about a group of four families known as the Commonwealth who believed that their families had permission to act as privateers rather than pirates because they had Letters of Marque approved by Congress in the U.S. Constitution Article 1 Section 8 and then signed by President George Washington. Over the years, it appears that the four presidents who were assassinated may have been done so at the urging of the Commonwealth. The current family members are having legal difficulty proving that the Letters of Marque they have are valid documents since President Andrew Jackson removed the supporting documents for their claim and hid them using a code written using the cipher wheel used by President Thomas Jefferson (hence the title).

Leigh brought information about the U.S. Constitution Article 1 Section 8, Letters of Marque, cipher wheels (including photos of the one used by Jefferson), and photos of gibbets since they all provided historical background for the story