The Janson Directive - Softcover

Ludlum, Robert

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0312945159 ISBN 13: 9780312945152

Publisher: St Martins Pr, 2008

Synopsis

When billionaire philanthropist Peter Novak is kidnapped by a terrorist known as The Caliph, it's up to Paul Janson--a legend in the notorious U.S. covert agency Consular Operations--to save him. But Janson's rescue operation goes horribly wrong...and soon Janson is marked for death, the target of a "beyond salvage" order issued from the highest level of the government. Now Janson is running for his life, pursued by Jessica Kincaid, a young agent of astonishing ability who can anticipate and counter his every move. To survive, Janson must outrace a conspiracy that has gone beyond the control of its originators. To win, he must counter it with a conspiracy of his own...

About this title

Review:

Robert Ludlum is famous for big, slick, bestselling thrillers crammed with hair-raising action and outrageous plot twists: The Janson Directive shows the maestro in good form.

Retired US agent Paul Janson, a top man in corporate security, is lured back to the old game by a personal debt of loyalty. Peter Novak, billionaire and revered peacemaker, gets captured when Muslim revolutionaries topple an island democracy in the Indian Ocean--and within days will be beheaded. Janson sets up a near-impossible "exfiltration" operation to pull Novak from his massively guarded prison, and against all the odds seems on the very brink of success when a shockingly unexpected disaster casts doubt on everything that's happened so far.

Janson needs all his wealth, competence and tradecraft to stay alive through the international shenanigans that follow, with his old US agency and another shadowy organisation both hell-bent on terminating him. He barely escapes a well-laid trap in Greece, becomes the target for world-class snipers in London, lands in the middle of a pitched battle with assault weaponry across the roofs of Amsterdam, meets further mayhem in Hungary, and ends up in the USA for a Bond-like chase sequence, incredible reversals, and a final razor-edge showdown in the United Nations building. Meanwhile there are flashbacks--vitally important, it emerges--to Janson's horrific experience 30 years before in Vietnam.

At every stage Ludlum offers ingenious escapes, cunning ploys, and increasingly sophisticated means of evasion or assassination. With luck, detective skill, and help from a gorgeous female who's a crack shot, Janson painfully reaches the heart of the mystery. Fast-moving, clever, and violent--though occasionally going a fraction over the top--The Janson Directive delivers all the goods we expect from Robert Ludlum. --David Langford

Review:

"Loaded with all the intrigue, paranoia, and real-life parallels that made Ludlum famous." --People

About this edition

• Publisher: St Martins Pr
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0312945159
• ISBN 13: 9780312945152
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Number of pages: 760