The Ambler Warning » (Reprint)

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.

HE'S SEARCHING FOR SOMEONE WHO DOESN'T EXIST—HIMSELF.

On Parrish Island, off the coast of Virginia, lies a psychiatric facility. Far from prying eyes, it is a government-run hospital for former intelligence employees in possession of highly classified information. Former Consular Operations agent Hal Ambler is one of these patients whose mind is filled with secrets of state—and is considered such a security risk that he is kept heavily medicated and closely watched. But there's one critical difference between Ambler and the other patients—Ambler isn't crazy. Now he must find a way to escape the facility, find out who put him there, and uncover the truth of who he was…and why someone is willing to risk everything to see him dead.

"Reading a Ludlum novel is like watching a James Bond film…slickly paced…all consuming."

—Entertainment Weekly

"Ludlum stuffs more surprises into his novels than any other six-pack of thriller writers combined."

—The New York Times

Visit the Robert Ludlum™ Web site at

www.ludlumbooks.com

Publishers Weekly

For some bestselling authors, death is no impediment to an enduring career. But the latest Ludlum (d. 2001) novel, penned by an unnamed hired hand, reveals the problems inherent in such an arrangement: neither sufficiently like Ludlum's originals nor compellingly distinctive, it inhabits a kind of thriller purgatory to which only the most dedicated Ludlumite will be eager to venture. After a two-decade career as a clandestine operative, Hal Ambler is drugged and warehoused in the Parrish Island Psychiatric Facility, a government nuthouse for spies. A sympathetic nurse aids his escape, and soon Ambler is on the run, trying to figure out who he is and, more importantly, who he was. There are a few interesting characters particularly CIA accountant Clayton Caston, a man who knows little about feelings but who can tease a mountain of information out of a spy's expense account but the villains are mostly invisible and everybody else ends up dead before you really get to know them. Just because a writer can copy what was once a successful style does not automatically assure his publisher a successful book. (Oct. 25) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.