Robert Ludlum's The Moscow Vector (Covert One Novel) [Paperback]

Robert Ludlum lives. There were those who believed that with the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ludlum and other spy craft practitioners would quietly fade away, having no credible villain to frame a novel around. Such true believers forgot that evil always exists; it merely takes different forms. Ludlum's work continued apace and --- as is amply evident by THE MOSCOW VECTOR and its predecessors --- even survived his passing, with the able assistance of Patrick Larkin.

THE MOSCOW VECTOR is the latest of the Covert-One novels. Covert-One arose from a concept created by Ludlum shortly before his death. It is a secret organization answering only to the President of the United States, a group that quietly goes about the business of protecting the government and the documents and principles upon which it is built while operating outside of it. THE MOSCOW VECTOR arguably is the best volume in the series to date, and not because of the principals involved, who include the reliably competent Dr. Jon Smith and the quietly enchanting but dangerous Fiona Devlin. Nor is the startle factor of this tale provided by Wulf Renke, the mad scientist who is the method by which Victor Dudarev, the President of Russia, intends to bring about the reinstitution of the Soviet Union with the involuntary involvement of the former member states.

Rather, the real star of THE MOSCOW VECTOR is the ingeniously dangerous weapon that Dudarev is using to put his plan into motion. It is a bio-weapon (not a virus) tailored to strike a particular individual's DNA, destroying silently and insidiously from within, while leaving no trace of its passage. It's a brilliant concept that's frightening in its potential. The targets of this lethal instrument are U.S. intelligence analysts, the duly-elected leaders of the former Soviet satellites --- and a certain leader of the free world who sits in the highest office of the U.S. government. Dudarev's plan is to remove everyone capable of stopping his invasion before it takes place.

Smith, Devlin, and a couple of surprising but familiar assistants are in a race against time, not only to prevent Dudarev from hatching his plot, but also to stop the implementation of the bio-weapon as it moves, slowly but quietly, into place in the White House.

Larkin's always competent and reliable storytelling abilities are augmented here by an ingenious weapons concept that is all the more frightening because of its believability. Those who have never sampled a Covert-One novel will find THE MOSCOW VECTOR an excellent place to begin, as Larkin brings Ludlum's Cold War villains full circle with a 21st century weapon to boot. Recommended.

--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

I was dubious when a friend passed this novel on to me. Tom Clancy's "Op Center" series was a big disappointment, and I figured that the "Covert One" series would be the same - an effort to sell inferior novels written by second rate authors by cashing in on a "big name" author on the cover who probably did no more than provide an outline and possibly some technical advice to the writer who actually did the grunt work. What a surprise - I was hooked from page one and the action never let up. In fact, I was motivated to order the rest of the "Covert One" books after finishing this one. Hopefully, the rest of them will live up to the standard of "The Moscow Vector".

I am a fan of Ludlum but think most of the books farmed out under his name since his death are not exactly quality. The Covert One series however is an exception to that view however, possibly because they are upfront about it being inspired and organized by him but written by others so I'm not expecting Ludlum, just something in the vein of. This being said I have read all the Covert One novels and enjoyed them and this one is no exception.

However, of course there is a however, this book takes a bit of departure from the previous books in the series and suffers a bit because of it. In the earlier works of what I call a thriller-action series the accent was on the thriller. The protaganist, Dr Jon Smith, was basically a doctor and scientist with the US Army who, due to circumstances, became a part time intelligence agent in a very loose knit agency, Covert One, which basically was a number of people like Dr Smith tied together though the agency's head, Fred Klein. The stories progressed with Jon Smith using his intelligence and wits to try to find a solution to the crisis threatening the US and having enough physical ability and training, and some friendly help, to fight his way out of the occasional physical attempt to stop him to add some action to the thriller. The plot itself was mainly carried through the fact that as he progressed in solving the mystery he was usually dead ended somewhere along the line due to something or someone necessary to the next step disappearing, usually violently, and causing Dr Smith to backtrack and find another path. The suspense came from wondering how was he going to find the solution, was he going to find it it time to prevent major catastrophe (You know he's going to save the world but that doesn't mean thousands might not die before hand) and how was the seemingly omniscient villan was going to slip up. Also there is sometimes the fact that one does not know who is behind the plot to add to the suspense.

In this novel though the solving of the mystery is a lot more straight forward. THe suspense, instead of coming through the solving of the mystery is maintained by how Jon Smith is going to get out of the latest trap. Yes, as I said the action takes precedence in this book and instead of finding dead ends as he goes about his investigation Dr Smith usually finds a trap waiting for him. I think there are as many attempts on his life in this book alone as there were in all the previous novels combined. To me this plot device, while not making it a bad read, takes away from the premise. It causes Dr Smith to become more of a man of action, the typical spy protaganist, rather than the unique individual he was. It also starts to put a strain on believability. While one has to let one's imagination have free rein in reading any story like this one does usually have certain bounds and the hero escaping from too many attempts to kill him starts to tax those limits.

Also Covert One, in this novel, seems to become a more typical spy agency than it was in the previous books. While you knew it had to have resources and some full time employees they were behind the scenes, so to speak. The idea was presented that it was a loose knit operation of a number of people like Jon Smith, mobile cyphers as it were, who were mainly unaware of one another with full time professions elsewhere, who stepped up to the plate when called upon. IOW, a small highly secret organization used only for special occasions. In this book however, while not really overt about it Covert One seems to be becoming the more typical major type agency with the kind of payroll and resouces of the CIA or Ludlum's Cons Ops.

I don't know why the book took this turn as Patrick Larkin had written an earlier Covert One book. Could it be that the publisher's wish to switch to a more stereotypical formula figuring on greater appeal, that the action will draw more readers than the thriller? Guess we will find out in future books if these paths are followed. To me however, while still a good read it detracts from the uniqueness of both Jon Smith and Covert One themselves.