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Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Imperative (2012)

by Eric Van Lustbader(Favorite Author)
3.87 of 5 Votes: 1
ISBN
140911645X (ISBN13: 9781409116455)
languge
English
genre
publisher
Orion Publishing Group
series
Jason Bourne
review 1: High flying, high finance, high society, high jinx. Low down dirty double-crossing dirty tricks. That’s what you expect from a Bourne thriller - and that’s exactly what Eric Van Lustbader delivers. Time and time again.I like these 'Bourne’ thrillers so much, that I am able to forgive almost anything that does - or sometimes doesn’t - happen in them. I’m even prepared to (well, almost prepared, I suppose I should say) overlook the constant ‘punching in’ of telephone numbers. One just doesn’t punch a number in. No. Anyway...‘Imperative' begins (well, a little bit after the beginning really) with fishing a man with memory loss and no identification out of the water. This time though, in contrast to the first ever Bourne book, it's Jason B., doing the fishin... moreg. Story moves on and the shocks and thrills mount and it soon turns out that (even) the President of the USA wants Bourne dead. I suppose you know you’re really up against it when the good ol’ POTUS wants you dead, eh? The rest of the story? Well, there’s not much you need to know, except it delivers. We have Russians, the Israelis - in the form of Mossad (as friends and foes) - Mexican drug lords and more. You can pick it up, but don’t expect to be able to put it down again anytime soon. I seem to have read this one a little out of sequence, but it really doesn’t matter. Enough of the whys and wherefore’s are explained to make it all readable without having read the previous, and without getting in the way of the enjoyment of the present. Otherwise? You can tell the English character - he's the one calling people 'mate' in every other sentence. Mexico City is both a whirlpool and has a beating heart inside the same paragraph. Yeah, I guess I’m willing to overlook those as well.If you want a book that keeps you on your toes the whole time, where you should always expect the unexpected, then this is more how a good thriller should be than many you’ll read. Confusing yet intriguingly interesting at the start, as the pieces are assembled , then becoming clearer in the middle as the pieces fall into pace for Bourne - and you. As the problem becomes clearer, possible solutions pop up, on the page for 'Bourne and in your head. I like that in a book. And I’m pretty sure this is the kind of thriller the people quoted on the backs of Charles Cummings books think they’ve been reading.
review 2: As I indicated after I finished reading and remarked on The Bourne Dominion, if Van Lustbader didn't find a way to get many of the "worn out" characters out of the stories (becoming boringly redundant), The Bourne Imperative would be my last Bourne read. Most are now gone and behind us and Van Lustbader seems to have left the door just slightly open to having Jason forge some new kind of relationship with Mossad and an all new cast of characters there. A lot could be done to show a very tenuous relationship between Mossad and the CIA and other U.S. intelligence agencies with Bourne being a catalyst of some sort to several different assignments or non-assignments so-to-speak. We'll see if anything more is to come for Jason Bourne. less
Reviews (see all)
harmonRLI
Tedious. Imperative? What imperative? Van Lustbader should return to his Nicholas Linnear character.
amj
Another wonderful Bourne adventure. I enjoy all of these books very much.
fetty
A quick read. But I have to say i really prefer the Bourne films.
Karendstith
The plot was complicated and hard to follow at times.
Adelaluv1D
Reserved at the library today
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