Rating: 
Summary: Not all that great
Review: I have read every book published by Robert Ludlum, and I must say that this is quite a step down from even the weakest of his novels. I can only assume that the publishers got hold of a first draft and edited it for publication because that is exactly how it reads. I would like to think that Ludlum would never have submited this for publication as is. Perhaps a few re-writes later and this would have been a good novel. As it is, I find it rather obvious and not all that well written.
Rating:
Summary: Lost steam, unbelievable
Review: I just finished this book a few days ago. What a disappointment. I thought that since it had the great name Ludlum on it, it would be better. How wrong I was.
I agree with the reviewer who said it lost steam after about 150 pages. It started out great, and I was really enjoying it as the tension built up. But then something happened midway through where it just became unbelievable. The main character, Metcalfe (who is supposed to be only 29 but acts way older at times) will be in a hot spot, unable to get out, and lo-and-behold, somebody would come along just in time to rescue him, or he'd happen upon just the right tool to help him out of the job. In the end, everything fell together just too easily, and it was too cliche the way the "bad guy" spent several pages explaining what he did, the whole time threatening to kill the hero. I just can't recommend this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Readable and surprisingly plausible
Review: I just happen to enjoy Lundlum potboilers and this one doesn't disappoint.
I don't know how much of this is Ludlums and how much was ghosted but it is close enough to Lundlums style where it doesn't really matter.
I try not to quibble too much about fantastic escapes and such, as long as the story flows well. This one moves fast and the action hardly lets up for a page.
I did enjoy the premise - that the U.S. manipulated Hitler into attacking the Soviet Union by planting fake documents. This is plausible and one possible explantion for Hitlers actions that have so far defied reasonable explanation by most historians. Hitler may have been insane but he wasn't crazy.
It had a lot of material about FDR's and Harry Hopkins communist sympathies and is consistent with historical fact as far as the strife and struggles preceeding the U.S's entry into WWII.
I suppose few readers are that well versed on pre-WWII history to know this, but there were a lot of Nazi sympathizers in the US prior to the war. Many viewed Hitler and not Stalin as the "lesser of two evils", and felt the US should have allied with Germany against the USSR. This book recaps that history in the context of the story without taking any stand on the matter.
Like most of Ludlums stories, he is good with detail and keeps the story moving well enough where you'll want to finish it in as few a sittings as possible.
This is not high literature, it is not ground-breaking it's just good old fashioned action and adventure with enough plot twists to keep you going even though many of the outcomes are predictable. The predictability doesn't seriously detract from the enjoyment of the novel.
I have to say that this is on par with Lundlums best works and worth a read.
Rating:
Summary: Leaves a taste like junk food in your mouth
Review: I realise that Ludlum's glory days are long gone, but his last few books which were (at least in part) ghost-written were still fairly gripping and entertaining reads. This book is not. It is set in wartime Europe, initially in Paris, later in Moscow and finally in Berlin. Our hero, Stephen Metcalf is an American working for the Allies in an undercover capacity. He is curiously inept and also governed far too much by his feelings for a beautiful Russian ballerina, in one of the least convincing romances that I have read. It is a miracle that he survives to the end of the book, given how gullible he is and how prone to error. The first half of the book is reasonably compelling, but it runs completely out of steam with about 150 pages to go. The plot twists are implausible and signalled so far in advance that they come as no surprise. The dialogue is laughably bad and the character motivations are quite ridiculous. It's a shame to see the Ludlum name sullied like this.
Rating: 
Summary: The Tristan Betrayal
Review: I thought this that the first half of the book was written by Ludlum and the second half by someone else. Someone who did not write nearly as well as Ludlum. The italics, the exclamation points, the weakness that the main character displayed, was NOT what the original author intended. If there are any more Ludlum books out there and need either editing or finishing, please find someone who is capable of measuring up the talent of the original author.
Rating: 
Summary: Even better than Sigma Protocol!
Review: I'm a huge Ludlum fan, and at first I expected to be disappointed when I realized that the plot is set partly in WWII. But I was pleasantly surprised -- the action and excitement are just as heart-pounding as in SIGMA PROTOCOL, if not more so! (SIGMA is my favorite Ludlum -- if you haven't read it, do it now!) I must disagree with the other reviewers about this book.
Rating:
Summary: Classic Ludlum but with a fascinating historical angle
Review: I've been a fan of Robert Ludlum since his first books (Scarlatti Inheritance, Gemini Contenders, Rhinemann Exchange). They were all historical what-if's. He moved into contemporary stories after that, but apparently left this story, from his earlier period, in the drawer. It was completed by an editor or writer. Whatever the real story, this is a winner. I couldn't put it down. The story ranges from 1940 Moscow to 1991 Moscow, with a long sequence in occupied Paris. Anyone interested in World War II history will love this novel. The premise -- how the war really started -- is not only intriguing but backed up by a number of serious histories I've read recently. I'm surprised I haven't read more about the controversial hook of this terrific page-turner. Along with the last several Ludlums (whoever's editing him deserves a Pulitzer Prize!), this is one of his best. I highly recommend it to all Ludlum fans -- and also to all readers of historical fiction!
Rating:
Summary: So very dull
Review: It would be a terrible shame if Robert Ludlum was to be remembered for books like this, rather then some of the great thrillers he has written over the years. This story has been ghost written and it reads nothing like a Ludlum novel. Amazingly there is no tension or true thrills at any point of the book and you ended up not caring about the characters at all. Despite the potentially interesting background I was bored from start to finish and I had a sense of relief when I finally reached the end.
The real crime here sits with the editor and the publisher who do not seem to realise what the reading public want and expect from a novel that has Ludlum's name on the cover.
Rating:
Summary: It's time to let go
Review: Robert Ludlum must be rolling over in his grave. I used to devour Ludlum novels in one sitting. I am having trouble finishing this one -- far fetched, poorly contstructed, full of cliches. It's as if someone read all of his previous works and pulled the absolute worst parts from each and put them into one book. I am through -- this is the last Ludlum I will waste my time and money on. He was a master of the genre -- let his readers remember him as such
Rating: 
Summary: Unbelievable
Review: The principal character would have to be superman to survive the situations in which the author placed him.The plot was without any basis in fact and insulted the intelligence of the reader and the hero's enemies.
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