Customer Reviews

The Bancroft Strategy

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

This is as exciting and convoluted as any of the master's thrillers; prior reviewers have detailed the story sufficiently. I'll only add that the plot's twists, turns and surprises continue right on up to the final paragraph in the epilogue.

Although I enjoyed the story immensely, I had the sense that the action scenes lacked the "Ludlum Strategy" of realism and credibility [after all, how can many times can one super-agent overwhelm four or more opponents singlehandedly; or one untrained woman knock out two professional killers?].

On checking the book's front pages, I learn that the 'Ludlum Estate' (the author died 12-Mar-01 in Naples, FL) commissioned a "qualified author and editor"; the unanswered question remains whether this book -- prominently displaying Ludlum's name -- is an updated previously unpublished manuscript, a thriller developed from a premortem story outline, or whether the commissioned author wrote this book singlehandedly.

If this is indeed an original de-novo piece of writing, then the true author deserves not only a great deal of credit, but ought to publish under his/her own name rather than remain anonymous; s(he) would make a genuine contribution as an independent, skilled and accomplished writer of thrillers. I have the uncomfortable gut sense that this ship may be flying under a false flag ... unless and until the authorship provenance is more fully clarified.

Robert Ludlum is easily the best and most prolific dead writer in the world. I've heard that when he died he left behind a number of unfinished book ideas. I've heard that his estate then hired an as yet unidentified author to take these ideas and put them into book format. I've also heard that this author has used up all of Ludlum's unfinished ideas and now is using his own plot lines but carefully following the Ludlum formula of how a book should be written.

At any case, this is a post Ludlum novel published under his name (with a trademark symbol). How good it is depends on the reader, which is, I guess the story for any book. A lot of reviewers will say this book is absolute trash.

This book follows the Ludlum formula of a super agent in trouble with his agency. Enter a young lady with no secret agent experience or training but with expertise in some allied field that will be of great help to the agent. Add in a chase through exotic locations and you have a classic Ludlum story.

As for my own opinion, I think I like the new Ludlum's better than I did the originals, especially those published towards the end of his life. The new author seem to have new and refreshing ideas about how to take the familiar Ludlum situations and put them in a new light.

I was a long-time Robert Ludlum fan, and I am disgusted by this rubbish being published in his name. Everything about this novel is wrong. It has none of the pacing, character development, characters, dialogue or descriptive passages that were the hallmark of the novels written by the author while he was alive. It is possible that this novel was based on some vague outline prepared by the author while he lived, but it seems almost certain that none of it was fleshed out by him personally, or if it was, it must have been left on his pile of discards. More likely, this is a story made up out of whole cloth by the publisher or a ghost writer, based on a completely misguided perception of what Robert Ludlum's "formula" was. Even more likely still, the book was written by someone who had never even read a Robert Ludlum novel, and wrote the book based on someone else's description of what a Robert Ludlum novel was like. True Robert Ludlum novels were taut thrillers whose protagonists typically acted and sounded like real people caught up in extraordinary events that confused, disoriented, and often terrified them. Robert Ludlum took the time to develop the plot and the characters in tandem, so that the protagonists' response to unfolding events made sense within the context of their background and development. They were never glib, smug, comic book superheroes, as in this novel -- not even Jason Bourne, whose extraordinary skills were moderated by the handicap of his memory loss and, in the initial novel, his fear that he was a despicable human being who murdered people for a living. Everything that was enthralling about good Robert Ludlum novels is lacking in this posthumous publication. In particular, the dialogue is a huge disappointment. It reads as though it was written by a Brit, not an American, and is more akin to the flip, "clever" dialogue from a bad James Bond movie (ala Roger Moore). To those who truly appreciated Robert Ludlum while he lived, I would suggest you pass on this particular novel. Better to re-read one of the books he wrote himself.

This book is terribly written. The plot was cryptic when it shouldn't have been and pathetically obvious when it was trying to foreshadow the "twists" in the story line. The dialogue seemed purposefully verbose and forced. I was really irritated by the number of descriptions that consisted of synonyms. If you're going to say someone is irately angry, just say that he is angry.

I've never read any of Ludlum's work, and as it turns out after reading this, I still haven't! I picked this up in the discount section at Barnes & Noble just to give this writer a try. I'm not big on spy thrillers but since most of my favorite writers are between books... Anyway, after starting this story, I come to find out it wasn't even written by Ludlum. Some un-named ghost writer is doing it, for the family, I guess.

The book started as a real chore to read. Slow. I found the chapters too long, and the exposition overbearing compared to the dialogue. Yet, it kept me intrigued just enough to keep going. By the last third of the book, things started getting interesting and by the end, the twists and turns really had me going. All in all, I enjoyed it enough that whoever wrote this should get at least second billing to Ludlum, as that would be far less deceptive than the way they are presenting this now. Yeah, it does say something to the effect that some writer is doing it in his staid, but if you don't read the fine print at the beginning, you'd never know. Even Clive Cussler gives second billing to the guys helping him, like Paul Kamprecos and Jack DuBrul. So, why not with the Ludlum family, or whoever is controlling this? Maybe that is another conspiracy, like the Bancroft foundation.

If you like a bit of a long and drawn out story, and don't mind a bit of work to get to the payoff, this is a good read. Recommended.

I used to be a big fan of Robert Ludlum, but his latest books are just missing with me. The Bancroft Strategy has the Ludlum-standard fast-paced action and the twisting plot, but it never gripped me the way his earlier works did. And the gratuitous violence had me skipping over big chunks of text. Bottom line: If you're going on a long plane trip and someone loans you a copy of the book then go ahead and read it, but otherwise keep looking for something else.

Author Robert Ludlum died in 2001, but his franchise remains alive through a series of books being released under his name, but penned by uncredited authors.

It is unfortunate that some very good research on current health and societal issues is wasted in this book due to one-dimensional characters, a highly predictable plot and a flat climax to the action, which diminishes an ending that could have cried out for a sequel, if this volume was only written better.

In an exploration of the New World Order in cyberspace, the battle is for a true heart and soul within the shady corners of good versus evil. But in what should have been an extremely powerful monologue by the antagonist to depict his twisted mind degenerates into a parody on the classic personification of evil; missing was lightning cracking in the background and a macabre laugh.

The male protagonist, Todd Belknap, is a cut below Jason Bourne and his female counterpart, Andrea Bancroft, could have been the main character if only the author was not seemingly burdened with a bulky, generic framework for material.

If the strategy is to keep Ludlum's name fresh on the shelves of bookstores and libraries, then releasing books through ghostwriters can go on indefinitely. But if the quality of the writing does not improve, the books will be apparitions of the legacy Ludlum set in the 22 books that were published in his lifetime.

If I hadn't downloaded this as an audio book, I wouldn't have wasted my time reading this novel.

I read the Bourne series, and immediately became a big fan of Ludlum's ability to write intense spy vs. spy novels. But the Bancroft Strategy was filled with weak characters, unrealistic/unexplained solutions to what should have been impossible problems, and far too many cliche phrases/metaphors from the characters (oftentimes in rapid succession). I kept waiting for the book to get better, but was disappointed in the end. My only consolation is that I checked the audio book out from my local library and didn't spend any money on it.

If this book was truly written by Robert Ludlum, it should have been left to rest in peace along with the author.

I have mixed feelings about this book. Ludlum, if he did actually write the script, gave fanciful details about a rogue agent with moral ambitions (the ultimate mea culpa?).

The story line was good, although I won't detail what so many others have already written, but there were some twists that bordered on the laughable.

Most of the read was quick and allowed the reader the enjoyment of looking into the world of deep espionage, but so much of it was beyond reason.

That being said, Ludlum did provide for some great action and his character detail is always interesting. He seems to be able to develop characters with carefully crafted detail without watering down the storyline.

Overall I would recommend this book, but don't set the bar so high that you find disappointment at the end.

This book simply repeats and re-blends old ideas from various novels by Ludlum, Robin Cook and others. Yes, there is considerable action in this book, but again, it seems a little overdone. How come many of the foes that the protagonist faces tend to be as competent as the protagonist and yet keep making obvious mistakes? Also, this theory that some one organization is pulling strings to change the world is simply too long running, right from James Bond times. I also find the "Castor and Pollux" thing very very mushy, especially between the super-agents that these folks are cut out to be. Can't these ghost-writers find other themes to write about? Definitely not in league with the typical Ludlum genre.