Altman Code (Covert One Novel) [Hardcover]

Robert Ludlum (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 9, 2003 | Series: Covert One Novel

On the dark waterside docks of Shanghai, a photographer records cargo being secretly loaded. He's brutally killed and his camera destroyed. Two weeks later on the dangerous high seas, the U.S. Navy covertly tracks a Chinese ship rumored to carry tons of chemicals for Saddam Hussein to create new biological weapons. The President cannot let the ship reach Iraq. At the same time, he doesn't want the navy to attack and board it either, because decades of negotiations with China have at long last yielded a landmark human rights agreement that China is willing to sign. The President orders Fred Klein, head of Covert One, to find solid proof of what the Chinese ship is ferrying. Operative Col. Jon Smith is sent to rendezvous in Taiwan with another agent who has acquired the ship's true manifest. But the second agent is murdered, the proof is destroyed, and Smith is left only with a verbal message - the President's biological father is still alive, held a prisoner by the Chinese for fifty years. Smith must find the truth about the ship, a truth that probes the deepest secrets of the Chinese ruling party...

Editorial Reviews

Review

The review copy mailing and press release has been sent out, reviews to follow Review in COVENTRY EVENING TELEGRAPH

About the Author

After a successful career in the theatre, Robert Ludlum launched his career as a bestselling writer with THE SCARLATTI INHERITANCE in 1971, the first of twenty-three consecutive international bestsellers. Gayle Lynds is the co-author of two previous Covert-One novels as well as several bestselling thrillers of her own. Gayle Lynds is the co-author of three Covert-One novels and is the author of several bestselling thrillers.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: Orion Publishing (July 9, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0752857517
• ISBN-13: 978-0752857510
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 5.9 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,545,065 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Welcome to my author page. I'm the New York Times bestselling author of award-winning international espionage novels -- spy thrillers -- but when I was growing up, I had no idea ordinary people wrote books. I thought that was the literary turf of dead people, and if not them, then certainly gods and goddesses.

Despite my youthful conclusions, I still dreamed of creating the sorts of novels that would transport people to other worlds, other experiences, and leave them not only truly satisfied but feeling smarter, as I did when I read a really good tale.

Today I've published some eight novels, with a ninth on the way -- The Book of Spies, due out March 30, 2010, from St. Martin's Press. How did I get so lucky? I began writing literary short stories that were published in small journals. The discipline propelled me onward, and here I am today, creating adventure stories about London and Paris, Washington, D.C. and Rome. With me you can travel the world in my books, examining the clandestine world of spies, criminals, and secret power that quietly and importantly impacts all of us.

Some basic facts. My books have won such awards as "Novel of the Year" (THE LAST SPYMASTER) given by the Military Writers Society of America and the American Authors Associations, and have been People magazine "Page-Turner of the Week" and "Beach Read of the Week." Publishers Weekly lists MASQUERADE as among the top ten spy novels of all time. BookPage concurs: "Gayle Lynds has joined the deified ranks of spy thriller authors like Robert Ludlum and John le Carre." With Bob Ludlum, I created the Covert-One series and wrote three of the novels. One of them, THE HADES FACTOR, was a CBS miniseries in April 2006.

I'm a member of the Association for Intelligence Officers and co-founder and former co-president (with David Morrell) of International Thriller Writers. Born in Nebraska, raised in Iowa, I now live on the side of a hill in Southern California.

Thank you for dropping by. Please visit my website at www.GayleLynds.com to test your Spy-Q, visit my World of Espionage, and sign up for cool prizes.

Warm regards, Gayle