Scrawled in a pool of blood is one name the world wanted to forget - Jason Bourne...The second, brilliant Bourne novel from worldwide bestselling author Robert Ludlum.
After a successful career in the theatre Robert Ludlum became a bestselling writer. The titan of the thriller genre he is the world's most read author, selling 300 million copies of his books in 50 countries in 32 different languages.
Ludlum has never come up with a more head-spinning, spine-jolting, intricately mystifying, Armageddonish, in short Ludlumesque, thriller than this. A Peking leader of seemingly irreproachable reputation, secretly a Kuomintang fanatic, has masterminded a plot to take over Hong Kong via political assassination, the result of which would be civil war in China and possibly global disaster. His principal agent is an assassin-for-hire masquerading as the legendary ``Jason Bourne,'' a one-time secret U.S. agent now, under his real name David Webb, struggling with the aid of a psychiatrist and his loving wife Marie to recover from amnesia. Only one man can destroy the conspiracy: Webb, who must be persuaded to re-assume his Bourne identity, track down the impostor and through him lay a trap for the vile Shengthe ``persuasion'' to be by way of his abducted wife. The action jolts from the back alleys of Hong Kong and Kowloon to a secret government complex in the Colorado mountains to the seats of power in Peking and even the interior of Mao's tomb. Every chapter ends with a cliff-hanger; the story brims with assassination, torture, hand-to-hand combat, sudden surprise and intrigue within intrigue. It's a sure-fire bestseller. 650,000 first printing; $150,000 ad/promo; BOMC selection; Franklin Library limited edition. (March 15)
In this sequel to The Bourne Identity , David Webb, still suffering flashbacks to his Jason Bourne persona, is forced to undertake a final, possibly fatal mission after his wife is kidnapped. He must find and capture an assassin who is posing as Bourne in Hong Kong. By so doing he'll foil a plot that could plunge the Far East and then the world into war. Ludlum's latest has a best seller quality that many imitate but few master. You can quibble about this being too long, too talky, too preposterously implausible, but you can't quit reading. As often happens with sequels, this is not quite up to the standards of the original, but legions of Ludlum fans will send it soaring up the best seller list. BOMC main selection. Charles Michaud, Turner Free Lib., Randolph, Mass.
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