The Bourne Betrayal By Eric Van Lustbader

I have read, nearly, all of Robert Ludlum’s novels, exciting and well crafted all; the Bourne series was my favorite. The Estate of Robert Ludlum made a smart choice when they gave Eric Lustbader the right to continue the series; he really did a great job!
The earlier Bourne stories have a wealth of characters, exotic places, and tense adventures as well as the compelling hero, Jason Bourne for the author to draw on and he put together winner.
Jason is drawn back to work for the Central Intelligence because a Deputy Director and Jason’s best (and only) friend, Lindros is missing on assignment. The agency hates Jason because of his unorthodox ways but they know that Jason will find his friend.
Radical Muslim terrorists have got their hands on atomic bomb material they have a refining plant and a plan to bomb a major US city. They are also plotting to destroy the Central Intelligence agency. There is plenty of action, double cross, evil and dangerous people and settings in Africa, the Middle East, Russia and Eastern Europe and Jason Bourne is at his best using disguises, sophisticated weapons and gadgets and fighting with knives and his hands and feet. This was a great thriller.

First Daughter By Eric Van Lustbader

This is a new novel by a versatile and interesting writer. Not too long ago, I enjoyed one of his earlier novels “The Testament” which had a religious underlying theme; this new one deals with religious fanaticism, politics and deception in a contemporary setting where you might be tempted to connect some of the characters in the current administration.

An ultra conservative President who believes that his administration has been guided by God has only a few weeks left before a new President elect is sworn in. He is afraid that his successor is a “Godless” man who will change the “Christian nation” that he has promulgated.

The President has chosen a certain liberal religious group as a target to be attacked as a terrorist group hoping to sway congress to keep his conservative policies. As he puts his “attack dogs” to the job, the President Elect’s daughter, Ali, is abducted. A top ATF agent, Jack McClure, is assigned to help find the seventeen year old because he is a friend of the President elect and Jack’s daughter,Emma, who was killed in an auto accident went to the same school. Although Jack works best on his own, he is required to report to the President’s Director of Home Land Security and an FBI agent. The interplay and tensions are very well done.

Lustbader uses McClure’s guilt in connection with his daughter’s death and her relationship with Ali to create a kind of ghostly situation where Jack sees and speaks with Emma as he searches for Ali. I think it took away from the story.

The first chapter of the novel “Inauguration Day”, sets the stage for tense and exciting action that takes place during the preceding month.

This was a good thriller with an interesting protagonist and a couple of neat surprises well worth reading.

The Testament By Eric Van Lustbader

Braverman Shaw—"Bravo" to his friends—always knew his father had secrets. But not until Dexter Shaw dies in a mysterious explosion does Bravo discover the enormity of his father’s hidden life as a high-ranking member of the Order of Gnostic Observatines, a sect founded by followers of St. Francis of Assisi and believed to have been wiped out centuries ago. For more than eight hundred years, the Order has preserved an ancient cache of documents, including a long-lost Testament attributed to Christ that could shake Christianity to its foundations. Dexter Shaw was the latest Keeper of the Testament—and Bravo is his chosen successor.

Before Dexter died, he hid the cache where only Bravo could find it. Now Bravo, an accomplished medieval scholar and cryptanalyst, must follow the esoteric clues his father left behind. His companion in this quest is Jenny Logan, a driven young woman with secrets of her own. Jenny is a Guardian, assigned by the Order to protect Bravo, or so she claims. Bravo soon learns that he can trust no one where the Testament is concerned, perhaps not even Jenny . . .

Another secret society, the Knights of St. Clement, originally founded and sponsored by the Papacy, has been after the Order’s precious cache since the time of the Crusades. The Knights, agents and assassins, will stop at nothing to obtain the treasure. Bravo has become both a target and a pawn in an ongoing war far larger and more deadly than any he could have imagined.
This was an exciting adventure.