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Rating: 
Summary: Beware of this substandard effort.
Review: If you're a Ludlum fan, like I am, you will be acutely disappointed in this bomb. After the likes of The Sigma Protocol and The Janson Directive, this one is about as interesting as watching the tide come in. It starts with a hackneyed premise of terrorist weapon materials being transported to China, then comes to a grinding halt as the "story" stagnates for hundreds of pages, going on and on, with no advancement of the plot whatsoever, like a car stuck in the mud.
Rating: 
Summary: Altman is the Code for suspense!
Review: Outlined by Robert Ludlum, and written by Gayle Lynds, the Altman Code sizzles with action, a good plotline, good characterization, and crisp, realistic dialogue.
The latest installment in the Covert-One series with spy/physician hero Jon Smith, the story starts with a photographer who is murdered for pictures he has taken of a Chinese cargo ship transporting enough Iraqi chemical and biological weapons to make any city in the world a grave wasteland, uninhabitable for years to come. The ship's destination? The U.S., where else.
During a mission to obtain the ship's true manafest, Jon Smith and his contact are ambushed, and with his contact killed, and the manafest stolen, Smith is forced to find another way to abtain another copy of the manafest, or die trying.
Lynds leads Smith, and us on an action filled quest for the manafest, so that the ship can be boarded, and destroyed before it's deadly cargo reaches American shores.
Lynds further complicates the plot by throwing in the U.S. President's father being kept captive by the Chinese government, being used as a pawn in this dramatic affair, to "Look the other way, or else", the result is a great read from first page to last.
Hold on, and enjoy the ride! I did.
Rating: 
Summary: Spy thriller? try Snooze fest
Review: This was my first Robert Ludlum novel and I am seriously disappointed. I don't know that I'll even finish it. Characters have literally had the same conversations multiple times, as if the author isnt sure we were paying attention and they better summarize the plot again, just to be safe. The writing itself just tries to hard and is, in a word, lame. Sample line: "He crossed the room to the sink and picked up the dish liquid, Dawn, and poured some in the sink." Like we need to what brand of dish soap it is(!)?
From the summary on the jacket, this novel sounded promising. Instead, I'm fighting to stay awake, not caring if they ever catch the bad guys. 2 out 5 stars because I've managed to hang on more than half way.
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