Rating: 
Summary: Very poor writing and storyline....
Review: A very disappointing book from this great writer... Story doesn't make much sense and is unimaginative, writing is pretty bad and the book is filled with "cliché" and "déja-vu" moment.
Ludlum missed the opportunîty to deliver one of his great spy stories in the interesting WWII environment...
Rating: 
Summary: AN "A" FOR THIS READING
Review: Applauded for the topnotch vocal performances he always delivers, Paul Michael again demonstrates just what a pro he is with a superb delivery of a rather overwrought, weighty tome. Although Robert Ludlum, noted author of The Bourne Identity, died in 2001 books continue to appear under his name. This is one more thriller with more twists than a back country road. Set in 1991, our story opens in Moscow with the arrival of American Ambassador Robert Metcalfe. Communists are fighting for control of the government, and the man who will call the shots is named the conductor. It's Metcalfe's task to enlist him on the side of truth and right. Of course, there's a psychopathic assassin on Metcalfe's heels - a nasty type who strangles his victims with a violin string. And, also of course, there's romance with a beautiful woman (surprise?). Listeners are treated to chases across Europe as well as the possibility of history-changing events. Narrator Paul Michael gets an A+. As for plot: while many Ludlum fans may be happy, methinks the plot line merits only a C. - Gail Cooke
Rating: 
Summary: Solid but not spectacular
Review: As the years pass since the death of Robert Ludlum, it becomes less and less clear exactly how much Ludlum there actually is in the novels going out solely under his name. Tristan Betrayal clearly has the underpinnings of a Ludlum spy novel. At the same time, however, it does not contain the deep intricacies that were the hallmark of his earliest work. That said, this was still an enjoyable read. This book grabs the reader early as US Ambassador Stephen Metcalfe arrives in Moscow during the volatility of Russia in the early 1990s. The reader is then quickly taken back in time to occupied France in WWII. As the story unfolds, a young Metcalf is stationed in France as an intelligence agent. As the plot progresses, Metcalf must overcome physical and emotional challenges. Every so often the reader is transported back to the setting at the beginning of the book - Moscow in the early 1990s. While Ludlum aficionados may yearn for the old days, the Tristan Betrayal still is worth a quick read. It is solid, but not spectacular.
Rating:
Summary: Solid but not spectacular
Review: As the years pass since the death of Robert Ludlum, it becomes less and less clear exactly how much Ludlum there actually is in the novels going out solely under his name. Tristan Betrayal clearly has the underpinnings of a Ludlum spy novel. At the same time, however, it does not contain the deep intricacies that were the hallmark of his earliest work. That said, this was still an enjoyable read. This book grabs the reader early as US Ambassador Stephen Metcalfe arrives in Moscow during the volatility of Russia in the early 1990s. The reader is then quickly taken back in time to occupied France in WWII. As the story unfolds, a young Metcalf is stationed in France as an intelligence agent. As the plot progresses, Metcalf must overcome physical and emotional challenges. Every so often the reader is transported back to the setting at the beginning of the book - Moscow in the early 1990s. While Ludlum aficionados may yearn for the old days, the Tristan Betrayal still is worth a quick read. It is solid, but not spectacular.
Rating: 
Summary: Even the dead write thrillers
Review: During his lifetime Robert Ludlum was constantly criticized for his style of writing, and that has not stopped after his death. I have always enjoyed his books, knowing full well their shortcomings, because I don't expect them to be great literature, just something to pass the time with and enjoy a good story with exotic or unusual locations. If you don't take your popular fiction seriously, you can do far worse than Ludlum. That being said, I must remark that this latest book appears to be better written than many of Ludlum's solo efforts while he was alive. It moved fairly quickly, with lots of plot twists and excitement. My one quibble was the "surprise" at the end, which was telegraphed so early in the book that it came as no shock at all! Otherwise, it was a good read, and these days what more can anyone ask?
Rating:
Summary: Of course it's not the same. He's dead.
Review: Few people could write the espionage thriller as Robert Ludlum could. Bits of him are found in Nelson DeMille, Len Deighton, LeCarre to some extent, and Furst to some extent. And the Nazis and Russians are an enormous mother lode of people who transcend evil. So it's hard to run out of bad guys.
Another thing that punctuates the Ludlum novel in addition to great characters is that there is that stream of history that runs through it. Accuracy. Some truth. How much? We just don't know. Jason Bourne? We don't dismiss him because we can see where such events might have commenced. The Parsifal Mosaic? Might have been. Who knows.
And here we have Stalingrad. Giving the devil his due, literally and figuratively, how could Hitler have been coerced into invading Russia? Yammamoto was supposed to have called the U.S. 'the sleeping giant' after the rejection of a second attack on Pearl, but any student of history knows that the real sleeping giant was the rabid Bear of Mother Russia.
So a diabolical, intricate plan is hatched to use double and triple agents to create that whiff of believability, and somehow translate that pseudo conspiracy to the highest level of the Third Reich, to Hitler himself. To not just shatter the truce between Germany and Russia, but to get Hitler to invade the Soviet Union.
And at the center of this, a man we start off disliking, the promiscuous, educated, multi-lingual Steven Metcalf.
Good plot, complicated figures, double crosses and triple crosses. Murder most foul. But we must remember that it is a rewrite. Mr. Ludlum is dead. This is but a manuscript, a work in progress.
My criticism of the novel is that too much time is spent explaining to the reader why Metcalf is NOT going to do something, virtually over and over. The dialogue is crisp but the introspective thought patterns tedious. They are too long. It drags in parts.
Excellent stuff but maybe it's time to let Mr. Ludlum rest in peace. 4 stars. Larry Scantlebury
Rating:
Summary: Exciting concept, falls short in some details
Review: France has fallen, Hitler's Nazi Germany has gulped down half of Europe, and the Axis has formed a strong alliance with Russia, the only continental power with the strength to face Germany in the field. Although America has not yet entered the World War 2, F.D.R.'s spymasters know that the time will come when the U.S. will be drawn into conflict. But if only Britain remains as Germany's enemy, then defeat seems inevitable. American spy, Stephen Metcalfe is assigned a high-risk task--making contact with a Russian woman he once loved--a woman whose father is a Russian general and whose lover is a German diplomat, and using her to slip the Germans faked information about Russian military preparedness. Germany must be induced to attack Russia and give America the ally it needs. Metcalfe is pursued from Paris, to Moscow, and finally to Berlin by a German assassin intent on uncovering the plot and saving Germany from American tricks. In Russia, Soviet spies also converge on Metcalfe, themselves certain that Metcalfe intends to destroy their nation if he can. Somehow Metcalfe has to stay ahead of both Gestapo and Soviet intelligence--and against his own nation's willingness to sacrifice an asset if it will help the cause. Robert Ludlum was one of the greatest suspense authors ever before his death in 2001. THE TRISTAN BETRAYAL shows both Ludlum's incredible story-telling talents and the weaknesses of digging up and completing works that authors had decided not to pursue. The overall structure of TRISTAN is pure thrill. Metcalfe's adventures and the German assassin's pursuit compell the story forward. Ludlum's descriptions of occupied Paris, besieged Berlin, and terrorized Moscow are powerful reminders of Ludlum's narrative talent. But a key mark of a Ludlum book is the cleverness with which the hero overcomes obstacles. Here, all too often, Metcalfe uses the old gambit of pretending to know somebody higher up--someone who will be disturbed if annoyed at home. You can get away with this trick once or twice, but more often than that and it begins to sound like you're facing a bunch of losers. Ludlum would have rewritten these sections until they shone. Unfortunately, Ludlum wasn't able to do so and the book suffered as a result. THE TRISTAN BETRAYAL is Robert Ludlum at far from his best. Still, even adequate Ludlum is worth reading and TRISTAN makes for an exciting read.
Rating:
Summary: An Action-Packed Story, But It Does Not Sound Like Ludlum
Review: I always liked Robert Ludlum's stories, despite one-sentence paragraphs, stilted dialog, and contrived excitement. He gave us a grand picture of an earth-shaking event. In the case of The Tristan Betrayal, we meet Stephen Metcalfe, American secret agent, using the cover of an Argentine playboy to gather intelligence in German-occupied Paris during World War Two. But his cover is blown and his cell members killed. He has to get out of Paris, so he is sent to Moscow to try to use the love of his life, a Russian ballerina, to feed false information to the Germans to influence them to attack the Soviet Union and bring it into the war on the side of the allies. Again, his cover is blown, and he escapes to Berlin. Unfortunately, the story has a continuous set of death-threatening situations that face Metcalfe with monotonous regularity, and a set of improbable escapes each time. It reminds me of a James Bond novel, but Metcalfe is not as clever as Bond. Having said all this, I recommend the book if you are going on a long flight, or other boring activity, because the action never stops, and it will keep your attention.
Rating:
Summary: tristan betrayal
Review: I have been a Ludlum fan for a long time. The last books that he wrote himself were disappointing. However, the first of the ghost written were as good as ever. Unfortunately, the Tristan Betrayal is about the worst of them all. I suspect that the ghost writer has been changed. In the future it would be helpful if they identified the actual writer who could then stand or fall on his/her own.
Russell Stern
Rating:
Summary: What was that?
Review: I have read almost all of Mr. Ludlum's works and this one didn't feel like any of them. A rewiever below was comparing The Tristan Betrayal with The Sigma Protocol? Duh!! This book is not a Sigma and it's not a Prometheus, either. It lacks the Ludlum's trademark of fast paced action combined with high level of suspense and of course mystery. "My novels are complicated because real life is [sic]" said Robert Ludlum once. I haven't seen any of the complexity that we were so used to from his previous novels.
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