The Cassandra Compact: A Covert-One Novel [Paperback]

Robert Ludlum (Author), Philip Shelby (Author)

Book Description

Series: Covert-One | Publication Date: May 15, 2001

For thirty years, Robert Ludlum has been the acknowledged master of suspense and global intrigue. With an unbroken string of bestsellers in nearly every country around the world, his books have thrilled hundreds of millions of readers setting a standard that has never been equaled. Having once again raised the bar with his widely acclaimed bestsellers The Prometheus Deception and The Hades Factor, Ludlum returns with the latest novel in his Covert-One series. Delivering all of the complex, compelling action and heartstopping suspense for which he has become so justly famous, Robert Ludlum's latest is a novel that could only come from the imagination of one of America's greatest storyteller:The Cassandra CompactYuri Danko, a deep cover Russian asset for Covert-One, is on the run.His last communication was a cryptic and urgent plea for extraction.With no hint of what sudden danger Danko encountered or information he uncovered that could have driven him to such extreme action, Covert-One operative Jon Smith is sent to the pre-arranged meeting place with instructions to bring Danko out.Ten days later, in Venice, Danko arrives breathless and bedraggled at Jon Smith's table at an outdoor caf in Venice.But he barely opens his mouth before his body is ripped apart by a spray of assassins' bullets.Smith, eluding the hail of bullets, gives chase - only to witness the assassins themselves falling prey to a brutal execution.With only the scant clues left behind by Danko to go on, Jon Smith and Covert-One quickly conclude that someone is out to do the unthinkable - attempt to steal Russia's store of the smallpox virus.Now completely eradicated, smallpox is the deadliest of viruses and could well cause an epidemic of undreamed of scale should it be released in the general population. Smith and his Covert-One colleagues must prevent the virus from being stolen.But their unseen adversaries are several steps ahead of them and the virus is en route to the United States.Now they must unravel the complex scheme, overcome their powerful and invisible opponents, and recover or destroy the virus before the power of total Armageddon rests comfortably in the arms of a madman.AUTHORBIO: Robert Ludlum is the internationally bestselling author of twenty-four novels published in thirty-two languages and forty countries. Read by hundreds of millions world-wide, his books include The Prometheus Deception, The Bourne Identity, The Icarus Agenda, and The Chancellor Manuscript. He divides his time between Florida and Montana.Philip Shelby is a screenwriter and novelist whose numerous books include the bestselling novels Days of Drums, Last Rites, and The Gatekeeper. He lives in Los Angeles, California.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Covert-One, the president's personal, super-secret agency formed after some recent virus-driven chaos (The Hades Factor, cowritten with Gayle Lynds), is staffed by an unknown number of international covert operatives, including Dr. Jon Smith, late of the USAMRIID. And a good thing, too, because someone's helped themselves to Russia's share of the world's last two stores of the smallpox virus, an eradicated yet hideously deadly bug with no ready vaccine.

That the pox was nabbed and who nabbed it is clear enough early on. Why such a seemingly large and disparate cadre of global citizens (keeping the players straight puts one in mind of Abbott and Costello's "Who's on First" routine) chose to pinch the bug and for what end are the novel's driving questions. Freelance Serbian uber-nasty, Ivan Beria, is among the apparent perpetrators as are Dylan Reed and Adam Treloar of NASA, Tony Price, the head of the super- secret NSA, and a bunch of Russians. The good-guys roster claims Smith; Covert- One's head, Nathaniel Klein; Briton and ex-SAS man, Peter Howell; Smith's deceased girlfriend's sister and CIA operative, Randi Russell; the girlfriend's best friend, backup shuttle astronaut Megan Olson; and another bunch of Russians. Suffice it to say that Smith and company trot the globe, cat-and- mousing after the pox and in so doing careen through a classically speedy and Ludlumesque (if coincidence dependent) plot leaving large numbers of efficiently dispatched corpses in their wake.

Most authors of international thriller-mysteries would give their right trench coat to make The New York Times® Best Sellers list. Of the late Robert Ludlum's 21 novels, 21 have resided upon that list. Where The Cassandra Compact, written with bestselling thriller author Philip Shelby (Gatekeeper, etc.), winds up is anyone's guess, but a few hundred thousand nightstands is a good place to start. And stay tuned for more installments--Ludlum may be dead, but he's not done yet. --Michael Hudson

From Publishers Weekly

Ludlum continues to imitate his imitators in his second Covert-One biotech thriller (after The Hades Factor), this time with coauthor Shelby (Days of Drums, etc.). Medical researcher and sometime spy Lt. Col. Jonathan Smith aided by CIA agent Randi Russell, British operative Peter Howell and ultrasecret spymaster Nathaniel Klein faces another villainous plot to unleash a deadly disease on an unsuspecting populace. Retired from the Army Medical Research Unit for Infectious Diseases after the death of his fianc‚e, Smith heads to Venice to meet a Russian scientist who is killed by Sicilian mercenaries before he can warn Smith that a sample of smallpox is about to be stolen from a Russian bioresearch facility. Up against a global military-corporate conspiracy with moles at NASA, the Pentagon and the KGB, Smith follows the smallpox across the Atlantic to Houston Mission Control and beyond. The cinematic chase through changing landscapes and mounting body count gives the book its rapid pace, while insider politics, tradecraft and technical wizardry lend an extra kick. Boilerplate dialogue ("The hit came down as arranged. But there was an unexpected development. I'm expecting an update shortly") and movie logic (after ordering the space shuttle to land in Nevada with the most virulent smallpox strain ever and several dead astronauts aboard, the president hops Air Force One to go meet it) show Ludlum may leverage his brand name, but no longer delivers the complex situations that earned him his reputation as a premier writer of international intrigue. National advertising. (May 15)Forecast: Ludlum died just last month, and word is he left a few books in the works. It's been a while since he was in top form, but some readers are bound to overlook the telltale "Robert Ludlum's" in the title.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 387 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press; 1st edition (May 15, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312253435
• ISBN-13: 978-0312253431
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (45 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #675,114 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Make a compact to read this exciting book!, August 19, 2001

By 

David Montgomery "Book Critic" (davidjmontgomery.com) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Cassandra Compact: A Covert-One Novel (Paperback)

"The Cassandra Compact" is a very exciting and entertaining read. The plot sometimes stretches the bounds of credibility a bit much, but that is to be expected in an action-thriller like this. There are also times when Dr. Jon Smith (the protagonist) borders on becoming a superhero rather than a true character, but he is generally very likeable, if never quite realistic.

In the past I have read some of Philip Shelby's work and thought that he showed promise. I have been impressed by his skills as a wordsmith, but found his story ideas to be somewhat lacking. Combining his writing talents here with the imagination of Robert Ludlum, however, has produced a blockbuster of a novel. This is not great literature by any means, but it is an engrossing story that will definitely keep you turning the pages.

With his death earlier this year, Robert Ludlum left a huge void in the international suspense/thriller genre. Thankfully, we do have writers like Philip Shelby and Gayle Lynds who are eager to take up his mantle. If "The Cassandra Compact" never rises to the level of the best of Ludlum's work -- and it doesn't -- reading it is still a very pleasing way to pass some time.

--David Montgomery, Mystery Ink

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A time-passer, July 21, 2001

By 

LadyT - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Cassandra Compact: A Covert-One Novel (Audio Cassette)

I happened to like the Prometheus Deception, and therefore, fully expected to like this book too. Like the Prometheus Deception, you'll find action, suspense, and diabolical characters. However, unlike the Prometheus Deception, this book just didn't add up. It's more like a movie that you go to see that has so much action going on that you don't realize that there really is no compelling story until the end.

The plot was a familiar one and decent, but the events that took place -- at times, seemed a little far-fetched. There wasn't a lot of character development, but what was done was sufficient. However, the inclusion of characters from the earlier book seemed to be just to show continuity -- which isn't a bad thing, but it didn't seem necessary since there was no in-depth interaction among them. Despite its "faults", the book is entertaining enough to pass the time with and it is a decent read. And, there were some pretty good suspenseful scenes in the book that kept me on pins and needles.

If you read the book and don't expect the caliber of story you typically get from a Ludlum book, you'll be okay.

33 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Mr. Ludlum Always Respected His Readers, May 17, 2001

By 

taking a rest - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Cassandra Compact: A Covert-One Novel (Paperback)

When Mr. Ludlum passed away recently the readers of his work lost one of the true originals in a genre that has becoming overcrowded with imitators. Not all of his books were as special as a given person's favorite, however he wrote with the knowledge that made his stories credible. This second book in, "The Covert One Series", is as bad and possibly worse than the initial volume in the series. The obituary that I read stated he was working on three additional books before he died that will be published. I hope someone has the integrity to publish the work if it was his or be candid with where the book was when he stopped working upon it. At the very least these Covert One amalgams that clearly had a minimal amount of his involvement should not be the final works to carry his name. That would be a travesty of this man's real books, and to his memory.

Between the last of this series and this mess, we had, "The Prometheus Deception", a few minutes with that book proves the difference between a Robert Ludlum Book, and Robert Ludlum's Covert Collaboration. This book is bad from the cover. The word, "Cassandra", has a very specific meaning and it has absolutely nothing to do with this book's contents. In the first few dozen pages you will read the most ridiculous writing. A man is blown back by a shockwave and is unconscious; upon waking he not only can identify the explosive used but how it was detonated. His explanation is absurd, the material is absurd as it is the last thing that would have been used, and the reasons are much clearer than the preposterous statements.

How about the fact that NASA has learned to defy one of the basic laws of nature? Great, explain it to me, don't just toss it in a sentence and expect me to take your word for Science Fiction that would challenge Star Wars. But this continues throughout the book, "military grade bullets", what was military about them? How do you hide behind a Grand Piano so that "expert assassins" shred the piano with these magic bullets and miss you?

Probably the most offensive example of lazy writing, but by no means the only example was as follows. If you wish to demonize someone it's bad enough to drag up the most overused group of the 20th Century and tie the person/company to them. When you then state an absolute falsehood about a fact that anyone who has read about the Historical Period being used would identify as ridiculous, the writer goes beyond lazy, to something just above mentally inert.

There are facts stated at the beginning that change by a factor of 600% later in the book, and other events that are too implausible to mention here.

Mr. Ludlum was one of the best. Having read these Covert One pieces of trash, I am convinced he had little to do with them. Compare any 10 pages from one of his books to one of these 2 alleged collaborations and decide for yourself. My library of this man's work has come to an end as soon as I toss these two in the recycle bin.