The Venetian Betrayal - Steve Berry

I continued my Steve Berry tour with the sequel to  The Alexandria whatever. While I liked the characters, I really liked the inventiveness of creating a new empire of sorts in the former  Soviet republics, and it read okay, the connection to Venice was really contrived.  The latter was based on the historical coincidence that the body of Alexander the Great disappeared from its tomb in Alexandria at about the same time the body of St. Mark appeared.  The Venetian stole the latter, and this book uses that theft as its takeoff point for a trek to find the final resting place of Alexander and a cure for AIDS.  I never really got over that, so although I liked the book okay, it was a bit of a disappointment.