Jason Bourne again becomes a rogue agent. In responding to a call from his former agency head and good friend, he finds his friend and a companion murdered. The immediate sound of approaching police makes him aware that he was deliberately set up for these murders. In an attempt to exconerate himself from the false accusation and to avenge the murder of his friend, he must find out why they were murdered. This proves an overwhelming task as he becomes an an unwilling participant in the search for a biochemical agent threatning the world and those behind the threat. Jason Bourne gets drawn into an international plot, confused by the multiple interests that seem to have come together for two purposes, terrorizing the world and killing him. At the same time he is being still being sought by his former agency, with orders to kill, for the murders.
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To complicate this search he is brought face to face with his past, both forgotten and remembered. He is also the target of a hired assassin, claiming to be his long-dead son, who has a personal interest seeing Bourne dead. This sub-plot is interwoven through all Bourne's attempts to find the person or persons responsible for the death of his friend.
Eric Van Lustbader has adopted the hero, Jason Bourne, from the late Robert Ludlum. As a long time fan of Mr. Ludlum, I find it difficult to equate Mr. Lustbader's hero with Mr. Ludlum's Jason Bourne. His brief inferences to Bourne's amnesia was the closest thing to continuity. Mr. Lustbader follows the form of Mr. Ludlum in the sense of useless information. The story had too many convulsions to keep my interest, and I also found it questionable that a chemical that would be inert under heat would be kept at a temperature of 32 celsius. This error should have been caught. Sloppy research or sloppy editing? Mr. Lustbader might not have sold without the Ludlum headline, but he should have just started a hero of his own. The book was too confusing and the convulted plots overlapped to form what could have been three different books. Too many agendas to keep up with.
The review of this Book prepared by Terri Adams
When David Webb finds his friends Conklin and Panov shot dead, he quickly discovers he has been set up. Now he must assume the persona of Bourne, and must uncover who has killed his friends, and who is trying to kill him.
The adventure takes Bourne all over Europe facing not only new foes and masterminds, but the very agency that trained him feels he has turned once more. All this also brings back a past he thought he had left behind in the jungles of Cambodia.
Will Bourne be able to stop the new young assasign that wants Bourne dead as bad as the Jackel? Can he find out what Conklin was doing that got him killed? And most of all, in his aging, will he be able to succeed against all odds, with no help from his most trusted associates?
The review of this Book prepared by Andrew Chaney
A emotionally damaged ex-government assassin suffering from amnesia is torn from the new life he has made for himself and drawn back into a world he'd hoped to never revisit when he is framed for the grisly death of his best friend and mentor. Drawn unwillingly back into kill-or-be-killed savagry that is modern terrorism he searches for the source of evil that threatens his very existence. Relying on half-remembered skills and a mental toughness unknown to most he hopscotches across Europe and Scandinavia to attack and destroy those who made the mistake of trying to destroy him. Mistakenly marked for death by his own government, he eventually saves the life of the official who signed his death warrant - the President of the United States.
The review of this Book prepared by Kregg
St. Martin's, Jul 2004, 25.95, 464 pp.
ISBN: 0312331754
David Webb teaches comparative languages at Georgetown University though he misses the excitement of his former life as a government employee working clandestine operations. Following an on campus incident, David reflects back to the death of his first wife and children in Phnom Penh, his meeting of his former handler Alex Conklin, his execution of Jason Bourne, and his three years as Bourne the assassin with an international reputation until he almost died. Now David is a married academic with two children, but Bourne still lingers on the edges and sometimes over the top.
A cracked marksman tries to kill David on the campus, but he cleverly escapes as Bourne takes over. Jason visits his former handler only to find Alex and agency psychologist Mo Panov dead. The CIA assumes Bourne went rogue. As Jason eludes the CIA, he remains unaware that he is an expendable pawn in a global game that is set for five days hence.
The story line is fast-paced from the moment Khan takes two shots at David on the Georgetown campus and never slows down until the final confrontation.
Harriet Klausner
The review of this Book prepared by Harriet Klausner
