Three Great Novels: The Early Years

by Robert Ludlum

Paperback

First published December 1, 2005

About the author

Robert Ludlum was the author of twenty-seven novels, each one a New York Times bestseller. There are more than 210 million of his books in print, and they have been translated into thirty-two languages. He is the author of The Scarlatti Inheritance, The Chancellor Manuscript, and the Jason Bourne series--The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy, and The Bourne Ultimatum--among others. Mr. Ludlum passed away in March, 2001. Ludlum also published books under the pseudonyms Jonathan Ryder and Michael Shepherd.

Some of Ludlum's novels have been made into films and mini-series, including The Osterman Weekend, The Holcroft Covenant, The Apocalypse Watch, The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum. A non-Ludlum book supposedly inspired by his unused notes, Covert One: The Hades Factor, has also been made into a mini-series. The Bourne movies, starring Matt Damon in the title role, have been commercially and critically successful (The Bourne Ultimatum won three Academy Awards in 2008), although the story lines depart significantly from the source material.

Reviews

[Robert · Rating 2 out of 5]

Three early novels by the famed late thriller writier, in which one can trace the development of his formula. The first two novels are worthwhile only to fanatical Ludlum readers, in my view, as they lack the narrative pace he later developed. The Rhinemann exchange, by contrast, is one of the best novels I've read by Ludlum; the positive qualities of narrative pace and plenty of incident are enhanced by the world war 2 setting which gives it an interesting atmosphere.