Third in the Covert-One series, this novel opens with a literal bang. Someone has destroyed with explosives one of the laboratory buildings in the famed Pasteur Institute. Not only is the building leveled, but also in the raging fire that followed, the world’s first DNA or molecular computer was destroyed as well as its creator Dr. Emile Chamberland. For Covert-One agent Jon Smith the attack is personal as his good friend Dr. Marty Zellerbach was gravely injured. In addition, because of some very strange events surrounding military communications, there is a possibility the computer was not destroyed and may be in the hands of terrorists.
Soon, Jon Smith arrives in Paris and finds his good friend lying near death in a coma. In fact, Jon Smith arrives just in time to prevent a second murder attempt on his friend’s life. At the same time, someone apparently using the new computer manages to bring down the entire United States utility and communication grids. Deaf and blind, the United Sates stands vulnerable to attack and the terrorists seem to be seeing how much havoc they can cause before they launch their final cataclysmic strike. With the fate of the world in the balance as well as his friend’s life, Jon begins to follow the complex trail to the terrorists and their secret lair.
While that is the premise of what could have been a very enjoyable book, the execution is fatally flawed. Despite it’s Bond style ending, much of this book commits the cardinal sin for any thriller. Boredom. This book is an incredible flat, dull read and quite a disappointment. This book is work to read and becomes a long march through the mud of boredom to reach the closing fifty pages that are mediocre at best.
While for long time readers of the late Robert Ludlum it has always been clear that this series did not stand up to Ludlum standards, the other two novels were at least fairly enjoyable. Both The Hades Factor (Coauthor Gayle Lynds) and The Cassandra Compact (coauthor Philip Shelby) while overwritten at times featured plenty of action and engaged the reader at least somewhat. However, in this novel, the overwriting is extremely prevalent throughout the novel and the read is entirely flat and without emotion. Even in scenes where, for example, terrorists are attacking Marty’s hospital room, the sense of emotion or nerve-racking danger prevalent in Ludlum works is nowhere apparent.
The boredom factor is enhanced by the fact that released as a large trade paperback; this novel is 425 pages long. One gets the sense that the authors were paid by the word. Or that Gayle Lynds was unable to correctly follow Robert Ludlum’s famous multi hundred plus page outline to properly create the work. The result is a novel that is seriously weaker than the first novel of the series, which she co-authored, and a sign that the series may die without the influence of the legendary master.
The Paris Option: A Covert-One Novel
By Robert Ludlum and Gayle Lynds
June 2002
St. Martin’s Griffin
ISBN # 0-312-28987-1
Personal note: Having been recruited to help defend the crown against the movie folk, this is another entry on my part where I lend my few words in support. For more details take a look at Sleeper54’s challenge at: http://www.epinions.com/content_3600982148
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