The Janson Directive (Hardcover)

by Robert Ludlum (Author) "The worldwide headquarters of the Harnett Corporation occupied the top two floors of a sleek black-glass tower on Dearborn Street, in Chicago's Loop..." (more)
Key Phrases: Peter Novak, Liberty Foundation, Consular Operations (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Even after death, Robert Ludlum remains the master of the international spy caper, and whether this posthumously published new thriller was cobbled together by a real ghost or already completed before Ludlum died doesn't matter. All the trademarked Ludlum gifts of plotting, pacing, and suspense are on full display in this engrossing mystery about a former covert operative turned private security executive who's stranded, abandoned, and marked for murder by his old colleagues when he manages to survive an unsurvivable mission. Rescuing renowned philanthropist and statesman-without-portfolio Peter Novak from the clutches of the terrorist who murdered his wife and unborn child, Paul Janson watches, unbelieving, as the plane carrying Novak back to freedom explodes before his eyes. Soon after the first post-mission attempt on his life, Janson begins to put the pieces of the puzzle together, but Ludlum keeps the reader from seeing it whole until the last thrilling chapter. A page-turner that doesn't let up, this one will leave Ludlum's fans hoping there are more unpublished manuscripts where this one came from, a not unlikely possibility. --Jane Adams

From Publishers Weekly
Ludlum died in March 2001, but here he is again, back with yet another posthumous thriller. Such books rarely live up to the author's standards, but this one is different: it's vintage Ludlum-big, brawny and loaded with surprises. The hero is Paul Janson, a private security consultant who retired a few years ago after a notorious career as the U.S. government's go-to guy for nasty jobs no one else was willing to take. Against his better judgment, Janson accepts an assignment to rescue Peter Novak, a Nobel Peace Prize-winning philanthropist and international troubleshooter held captive by Islamic extremists on an island in the Indian Ocean. Janson pulls off the stunning rescue, but as they make their escape, Novak dies in a fiery explosion-or does he? Janson has his doubts; within hours, he finds himself targeted by separate groups of assassins for reasons that baffle him. As he zigzags his way across Europe, leaving piles of bodies at each stop, he begins to wonder who Novak really is. The answer he eventually discovers provides readers with one of Ludlum's most outrageous plot twists in years. Extremely engaging and agonizingly suspenseful, Ludlum's plot bolts from scene to scene and locale to locale-Hungary, Amsterdam, London, New York City-never settling for one bombshell when it can drop four or five. If this wild, unpredictable and colorfully cast novel is Ludlum's swan song (he supposedly left behind notes for several thrillers), it's a memorable one indeed.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 542 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press; 1st edition (October 15, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312253486
• ISBN-13: 978-0312253486
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (71 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #604,459 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Still the Master as a Ghost(writer)..., July 20, 2003

By	R. Shaff "Velocipede" (USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Well, we have two gentlemen to thank for this piece of work, Mr. Ludlum's long time agent, Henry Morrison and his editor, Keith Kahla. With a reported 90% of the manuscript completed, Messrs. Morrison and Kahla rounded out a gem in THE JANSON DIRECTIVE; this book rings true to the REAL Ludlum as opposed to the "Covert One" series carrying his name. This storyline has the same content, feel, flair, and panache as Ludlum's classics (PARSIFAL MOSAIC, THE MATARESE CIRCLE, The BOURNE series...), which makes sense in that he wrote the vast majority of THE JANSON DIRECTIVE. I guess true Ludlumites will be hoping Mr. Ludlum left behind several more uncompleted manuscripts to quench our endless thirst for his works. Regardless, THE JANSON DIRECTIVE certainly was a nice surprise.

For those unfamiliar with Ludlum, the basic premise of most of his thrillers is to create an arguable hero, a villanous cabal or individual, and place our hero against impossible odds. The price of failure? The fate of the world.

Our hero in THE JANSON DIRECTIVE is Paul Janson, a legendary superspook retired from the clandestine covert agency where he made his career. His taste for brutality and violence bitter, the loss of his wife and the desire to live a solitary existence, Janson joins the ranks of the entrepreneur and hires himself out as an industrial consultant. The peaceful life takes a turn south when he is contacted by a representative of the Liberty Foundation, a private organization devoted to peace and democracy throughout the world. The Foundation's founder and nobel prize-winning laureate, Peter Novak, has been kidnapped and is scheduled to be publicly executed...by the same terrorist group responsible for his wife's death. Janson has another reason to consider reactivation; Novak was personally resonsible for saving Janson's life many years ago and Janson is not one to forget a debt owed. Without hesitation, Janson assembles a team of star operatives to rescue Novak.

The mission, against incredible and overwhelming odds, is a success until, moments after Janson bids farewell to his team and Novak, the escape helicopter explodes into a fiery ball of flames as Janson watches. His team, his friend and star pupil, and Novak-gone in a flash. As Janson tries to piece together WHY?, he finds himself marked for death in nearly every city he passes through. Janson believes it must be operatives of the terrorist group seeking revenge for his part in the daring rescue of Novak. However, Janson soon realizes his would-be assassins are American! As the storyline builds, Janson saves one of his latent assassins from rape and certain death. This act creates doubt in the assassin, Jessica Kincaid. As soon as Janson realizes that Kincaid works for the same agency from which he retired, his peerless instincts kick in, making Jason an inexorable opponent for his former agency.

As with most TRUE Ludlum novels, the plot devinely twists and turns keeping the reader absorbed in the storyline until the final twist at climax.

While the Covert One series maintains the broad brush "ideas" of Ludlum, these books are not true Ludlum books. Do not be mistaken, the Covert One authors, Gayle Lynds and Philip Shelby, are fine writers and understand the mechanics of the spy/mystery genre. However, those of us who grew up reading Ludlum know the Covert One books are a mere shadow of what was. Lynds and Shelby lack the characterization and panache of the master; we can only hope they continue to aspire to his literary summit. Kudos again to Messrs. Morrison and Kahla for briefly quenching an insatiable deire for more of Ludlum's gems. Here's hoping there are more.

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A masterpiece, November 4, 2002

By	Cris Cunningham "loves to read" (Long island, NY) - See all my reviews

If, like me, you have been waiting for that one spectacular posthumous work from the immortal master of international intrigue, then your patience has been richly rewarded. Since his death in March 2001, the first few offerings bearing his name were of the poor-to-bland variety. However, THE JANSON DIRECTIVE is pure, unadulterated, vintage Ludlum.

Security consultant Paul Janson, a retired Consular Ops covert operative, is suddenly thrown back into his former role when he is called upon to rescue Pete Novak, an international businessman, philanthropist and diplomat. Janson's mission eventually goes terribly wrong, and soon he is being targeted for death by the very same people who were once his allies, his former protégé being the assassin who seeks him out. If he wants to live, and save the man who once saved him, he must unravel a conspiracy that permeates the highest government powers.

What makes THE JANSON DIRECTIVE so brilliant is the myriad of detail which gives added color to the storyline. Sometimes the details were a bit to graphic for my taste, but I never once considered putting the book aside, even for a moment. It's true that the dialogue is more "electric" than Ludlum's previous work, however, the plot is just as complex and technical as any of his international conspiracies. The storyline, written prior to 9/11, is right out of the most recent headlines; a true Ludlum trademark. He always seems to know what will make tomorrow's news before it becomes news. Nevertheless, I am perplexed by the publisher's silence as to the true author of this work. Knowing who to give credit to would certainly satisfy my insatiable curiosity.

According to an article (The New York Sun,10/21/2002) which quotes Ludlum's longtime agent, Henry Morrison, the late author started this book during the early months of 2000 and finished it that fall. If true, this would account for the likeness this book has to the Bourne trilogy. However, the same article states that he 'almost" finished it. So which is it? I guess we'll never know.

Cris Cunningham

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars ROBERT LUDLUM AT HIS BEST (undoubtedly with an assist), October 30, 2002

By	Tucker Andersen (Wall Street) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Suspense - Action - Intricate Plotting - Wonderful Intrigue - All the things which Robert Ludlum provided the reader in his most successful books are contained in THE JANSON DIRECTIVE. This is an action adventure thriller to rival the Jason Bourne trilogy, and fans will hope that a sequel for Paul Janson was also conceptualized before Ludlum's death.

Paul Janson, a retired field operative from the covert agency Consular Ops is clandestinely recruited to attempt an exfiltration of Peter Novak, a billionaire and Nobel Peace Prize winner who has been kidnapped by nationalist rebels on the island kingdom of Anura and is to be executed in three days time. After being informed of the details of the mission by Marta Lang (head of Novak's philanthropy - the Liberty Foundation), when Lang thanked him for providing she and her associates with hope Janson remained silent but concluded that "perhaps false hope was better than none at all". And indeed, on the verge of apparent success a terrible tragedy occurs as Part One ends. For reasons totally unknown to Janson or the reader, a "beyond salvage" is then issued by Janson's former agency and he is targeted for death.

The remaining eighty percent of the book involves unraveling the intertwined mysteries of the life of Peter Novak, the Vietnam wartime experiences of Paul Janson, the role of the secret ops of the U.S. government, the disappearance of Marta Lang, and the continuing role of the masterful Anuran rebel leader, the Caliph, who has also a fateful link with Janson's past.

The intricate nature of the conspiracy as it unfolds rivals the best books of this nature that I have read, and the characters are well drawn, especialy Jessica Kincaid, the young sharpshooter of unbelievable ability (literally, her achievements were a bit too good) who is on the team chosen to pursue Janson, but also several of the bit characters as well including the Russian Grigori Berman. I was especially intrigued by Peter Novak, who Ludlum clearly seemed to model on George Soros in many details. However, Novak chooses to achieve his goals through an activist "directed democracy" rather than Soros' methodology of simply promoting "Open Society". Nevertheless, the existence of Soros as a real life model for the accumulation of such vast wealth makes Novak's character more believeable.

As most of Ludlum's books, this displays deep cynicism regarding the actions of our government, and great understanding of the arrogance of power. I found Janson's contempt for "the best and the brighest" and his analysis of their faults truly refreshing. Several things argue against this being written (rather than plotted) by Ludlum. Most noticably, the contemporary idiom relative to his other books, as well as the more graphic and detailed violence. I was repulsed by a few of the descriptions of torture, as was undoubtedly the intent given their context. However, the fact Ludlum stepped out of character to write THE ROAD TO GANDOLFO and THE ROAD TO OMAHA keep me from reaching a firm conclusion regarding the extent of his role in the preparation of this manuscript. But is is good enough so that the publisher should have informed its readers concerning whatever collaboration occurred in its preparation and provided appropriate credit, as this would not have detracted from its appeal.