I don't know if the problem is here at the University or with Blogger (possibly both), but I wasn't able to post earlier. I'm going to try again and keep my fingers crossed.

I've had this review sitting for about a week and frankly forgot that I hadn't either posted it here, nor sent along to Joe Bob. As with everything I place here I really don't know who (if anybody) reads it but I certainly enjoy myself and get that old egoboo from thinking that somebody might be skimming the site.

To be honest, I can't ever recall reading Robert Ludlum before (and he didn't actually write this book anyway), but know folks who love his stuff. Anyway, here's my latest review, so enjoy or simply skip it and wait for me to ramble a bit about the Golden Globes later today. :-)

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Robert Ludlum’s THE ALTMAN CODE: A Covert-One Novel
By Robert Ludlum & Gayle Lynds; reviewed by Steve Chaput
St. Martin’s Press: ISBN 0312289901

Like Tom Clancy, his fellow espionage/techno-thriller author, Ludlum has grown from being a single individual writer into something resembling a ‘cottage-industry’. No longer does he even have to write his own work, but he can simply come up with a plot (or concept) and let other writers take it from there. This is not to knock Ludlum, who has certainly proven with his dozens of international best sellers, that he can crank them out with the best of them. It’s just that by simply seeing his name on the cover millions of readers will take a chance on a book. Publishers and editors would be fools NOT to take advantage of this, witness the endless ‘series’ that Clancy & Co. are putting out almost on a weekly basis.

Also, like Clancy, Ludlum’s work is also being adapted into films, so it is probably only a matter of time until he has a few video games on the market as well (i.e. Tom Clancy’s SPLINTER CELL for Xbox).

Covert-One is one of those ‘top-secret’ groups put together by Presidents to circumvent silly things like Congressional oversight and budget review. The first time I encountered something like that was when I was in high school and was introduced to THE DESTROYER series, by my friend Gerry. It seems that just about every other thriller I read deals with some group or individual created to get around that pesky Constitution, and its separation of powers. In Ludlum’s world, of course, this is a good thing as President Castilla utilizes this organization of former intelligence agents and free-lancers to by-pass leaks and a possible traitor within the administration. I’m not quite clear how he goes about funding this group but that is probably covered somewhere in one of the earlier novels in the series. Things like that always seem to get in the way of the plot, anyway.

Taking as a starting point a real-life incident (the U.S. Navy following the Chinese cargo ship Yin He, in 1993, due to ‘intelligence’ which stated the ship was carrying illegal weapons) Ludlum’s novel has President Castilla ordering a naval frigate to dog another Chinese ship, reportedly taking chemicals (which can be used to manufacture WMD) to Iraq. In order to prevent another embarrassing incident the President orders the operatives of Cover-One to locate a copy of the ship’s manifest to prove the American case before things get out of hand.

Meanwhile, a power struggle is going on within the higher circles in Beijing, with a split between those who favor a ‘human rights’ agreement between the two major powers and those who would like to turn back the clock to a stricter adhesion to Communist doctrine. Stirring things up behind the scenes, in both capitols, is an international conglomerate ready to do whatever it can to ensure its bottom line and higher profits. It falls upon the shoulders of Cover-One agent Lieutenant Jon Smith to retrieve the ship’s manifest in time.
As if this wasn’t enough plot, Ludlum and co-writer Gayle Lynds (herself a noted author of espionage novels), toss in another complication. It seems that President Castilla’s biological father, whom was thought captured and killed decades before by the Communist Chinese government, is actually alive and being detained in a minimum security camp (for reasons never really explained). Realizing that the Chinese government probably wouldn’t want this fact known, Castilla and Cover-One head-honcho Fred Klein figure that the old man will possibly be executed or sent off to another location where he’ll be forgotten until he passes away from natural causes. In other words, it is decided that Covert-One and Smith’s second priority will be to free the President’s father and get him back to the U.S. alive.

The action is fast and shifts from Shanghai to Hong Kong, to Baghdad and back. with stops in Beijing, Washington and several other places along the way. Having never read one of the Cover-One novels before I can’t say for sure who is appearing or reappearing again. It seems obvious that Smith and CIA operative Randi Russell (a woman whose makeup and impersonation abilities should win her a spot on the Mission: Impossible team) are going to have their hands full getting out of this situation.

Lynds amazingly is able to juggle all of this plot and all of these characters, with only a few missteps. There are a few too many coincidents and an escape or two that would have you rolling your eyes in disbelieve if you saw them up on the screen. Still she brings enough humanity and depth to most of the characters that you actually care about what happens to them. Smith is no James Bond and Lynds allows him to show both sensitivity and a sense of humor, despite the dangers he faces. Lynds’ President Castilla and Fred Klein actually standout as the characters with the most depth and the book left me wanting to check in with them again. Three and a half stars (the book loses a half point for the almost cartoonish villain, Feng Dun)
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