Robert Ludlum's The Altman Code (Covert-One Series #4) »

When he died in March 2001, Robert Ludlum had become not only a veteran suspense author, but a reliable bestseller franchise. His plots involving high-level corruption and global conspiracy are like entering labyrinths; and readers keep coming back to get lost.

“Reading a Ludlum novel is like watching a James Bond film.”—Entertainment Weekly

When word reaches the White House that a Chinese cargo ship is transporting chemicals to a rogue nation intent on creating new biological weapons, the President knows he must act quick to obtain the proof he needs.

ROBERT LUDLUM’S

THE ALTMAN CODE

Covert-One agent Jon Smith is sent to rendezvous in Taiwan with another agent who has acquired the ship’s true manifest. But before Smith can get the document, he is ambushed, the second agent is murdered, and the evidence is destroyed. Smith escapes with only his life and a verbal message: The President’s biological father is still alive, held prisoner by the Chinese for fifty years. As the mysterious ship draws closer to its end port, Smith is losing time in uncovering the truth about the vessel and its cargo—a truth that probes the secrets of the Chinese ruling party, a faction in Washington working to undermine the elected government, and an international cabal thrusting the world to the brink of war...

Publishers Weekly

This latest product from the efficient assembly line of the Ludlum thriller factory has been somewhat overtaken by events: it revolves around a Chinese freighter carrying weapons-grade chemicals to the port of Basra in Saddam Hussein's Iraq. There are also a couple of neat subplots, including an elderly American being held prisoner in China who claims to be the real father of U.S. President Sam Adams Castilla, and the dirty doings of a giant international business combine called the Altman Group, whose members make Ian Fleming's old adversaries look like the operatives of a corner candy store. All of this provides plenty of action and intrigue for the folks at Covert-One, the top-secret agency which now operates out of a private yacht club in Anacostia, Md.-close enough to the White House for President Castilla to drop in on agency boss Fred Klein of an evening with just one Lincoln Town Car full of Secret Service folk. Most of the heavy lifting, actionwise, falls on the capable shoulders of Covert-One's Col. Jon Smith, who as "a medical doctor and biomolecular scientist" as well as an army officer is the ideal combination of brains and muscle. He needs both, as well as the patience to endure dialogue like this from Castilla: "I don't know whether you realize it, but China is one of the signatories of the international agreement that prohibits development, production, stockpiling, or use of chemical weapons. They won't let themselves be revealed as breaking that treaty, because it could slow their march to acquiring a bigger and bigger slice of the global economy." Exactly. (June 17) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.