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piranhapeter novak, hungarian-born international financier, philanthropist, and nobel peace prize winner who has dedicated his life to bring democracy to the world without being beholden to any political side, has been kidnapped by islamic extremists and is being held on an island, soon to be executed. what to do, but to turn to security consultant peter janson, an legendary former agent for the CIA's "consular operations", known for his ability to handle the nastiest wet jobs -- and for owing his life to peter novak, while the terrorists holding novak are responsible for the death of janson's wife and unborn child. with the help of his favourite co-workers from the past, including his star pupil, janson stages a daring and ingenious rescue operation, but after the get-away from the island he needs to separate from his group, since they picked up an extra hostage who's taking his place on the plane. but when he turns around one last time, he sees the plane go up in a fiery explosion. his team, his star pupil and father-to-be (oh yeah, we must rub this in), and the world's greatest humanitarian -- all gone. janson is stunned, and then tries to head home to investigate.
woops. not so quick. this turn of events has apparently pissed off any number of people, including his own agency, and they want him dead, being as he's apparently a traitor. what happened? who did this? janson, on the run from one european country to the next, has got to survive long enough to find out. he's not doing so well, what with the frequent flashbacks to his service in vietnam -- is there a connection to what's happening now? (me, i could have done without some of the very graphic descriptions of torture and disembowelment, including of the "noble kovacz" -- though the purple prose was just a light lavender in this case.)
but overall, this is vintage ludlum. janson as the hero is masterful, of course, but he has flaws, and he feels like a fully realized character to me. there is a strong and capable female operative, jessica kincaid, who ends up helping him -- bonus points for strong female characters, a rarity in this genre when i last read it. the story has plenty of twists and turns (i like to try and work out the puzzles on the way), and the requisite distrust of people in power and authority (part of why i like reading these; i can identify). there's tons of detail about spiffy spy gadgetry, which i love.
except. the denouement -- *gah*. i was not pleased, though i saw it coming when janson and kincaid went to hungary to look into peter novak's past. i was not pleased about some of the details, and where the story went from there. parts of the plot became too damn handwavey.
but overall i don't regret reading this one. there's one bit player, a russian mobsters, who's a small work of art character-wise. luckily he doesn't even get killed off right after doing janson a favour, only wounded. *rolls eyes a little at the red-shirtedness of so many of ludlum's characters*.
woops. not so quick. this turn of events has apparently pissed off any number of people, including his own agency, and they want him dead, being as he's apparently a traitor. what happened? who did this? janson, on the run from one european country to the next, has got to survive long enough to find out. he's not doing so well, what with the frequent flashbacks to his service in vietnam -- is there a connection to what's happening now? (me, i could have done without some of the very graphic descriptions of torture and disembowelment, including of the "noble kovacz" -- though the purple prose was just a light lavender in this case.)
but overall, this is vintage ludlum. janson as the hero is masterful, of course, but he has flaws, and he feels like a fully realized character to me. there is a strong and capable female operative, jessica kincaid, who ends up helping him -- bonus points for strong female characters, a rarity in this genre when i last read it. the story has plenty of twists and turns (i like to try and work out the puzzles on the way), and the requisite distrust of people in power and authority (part of why i like reading these; i can identify). there's tons of detail about spiffy spy gadgetry, which i love.
except. the denouement -- *gah*. i was not pleased, though i saw it coming when janson and kincaid went to hungary to look into peter novak's past. i was not pleased about some of the details, and where the story went from there. parts of the plot became too damn handwavey.
but overall i don't regret reading this one. there's one bit player, a russian mobsters, who's a small work of art character-wise. luckily he doesn't even get killed off right after doing janson a favour, only wounded. *rolls eyes a little at the red-shirtedness of so many of ludlum's characters*.