In this genre of espionage novels trapped in times of the Cold War, different authors traveled with great popular recognition thanks to this parallel with a world balanced on the red button of nuclear war. And also Robert Ludlum contributed his own with more than twenty novels about that underworld of intelligence services from here and there.
Together with him, as pioneers in that chronicle of what happened in the world between the 50s and reaching the 90s, we find the deceased Tom Clancy, to the fireproof John le Carré, or Frederick forsyth, octogenarians these last two that serve as a reference for new growers of a more updated genre such as Daniel Silva or even David baldacci. Because despite the fact that the world is no longer what it was in those icy times of diplomacy, tensions continue to move at the lurch of the governments of the day.
But the case of Robert Ludlum is a particular case. As I say, he wrote a lot and got wide recognition, but in my opinion he always walked in the shadow of le Carré or Clancy, at least on this side of the pond.
And yet, the magic of cinema rescued him a few years after his death to compose a saga that is close to the renown, in cinematographic success at least, of the most famous James Bond, the universal character of Ian Fleming, of whom I will also write his entry another time. But in the case of Ludlum, the saga in question narrates the adventures of Jason Bourne and the myth of him. A Bourne expressed in what had already been novelized by Ludlum and the witness of the protagonist's future passed into the hands of another writer: Eric Van Lustbader.
Of course, there is life beyond Bourne in Ludlum's bibliography. And here I will take sides to contribute more great independent stories of his great saga.
Top 3 recommended novels by Robert Ludlum
The Matarese circle
Away from that centripetal force of Jason Bourne, Robert Ludlum presents us in this novel one of his most elaborate plots and, for me, his best achieved outcome. It is not surprising that Tom Cruise and Denzel Washington joined the bandwagon of their take to the big screen.
The novel is a confrontation between the historically bitter espionage worlds, US intelligence and the KGB.
With reminiscences of the most intense years of the Cold War in which agents Scofield and Taleniekov fought dog-face between the subterfuges of diplomacy and that ended up extending their struggle to personal dramas, we enjoy a hook towards the present.
Because a possible reconciliation of the two agents is impossible, only that the appearance of the evil Matarese circle will lead both to compose an unsustainable team through their mutual hatred, towards a huge common enemy that threatens to blow up the current world.
A disturbing novel on all fronts and with that always unexpected ending ...
The Sigma protocol
The bank wins. And to win, he is capable of anything ... in fact, many of the greatest conspiracies are hatched in the great offices of the presidency of the largest banks in the world.
Ben Hartman is one of those high-ranking bankers who decides to accept a client's invitation to relax in the snow in Switzerland, where the money of many of the world's speculators also ends up relaxing ... Only as soon as he arrives in Zurich, Ben he runs into Jimmy Cavanaugh, and the encounter turns out to be less casual than it seems when Jimmy sets out to kill Ben.
From that same Swiss environment, an international plot of black money that has been fluctuating and stained with blood since the Second World War also begins to be woven, the consequent plundering and enrichment of those who knew how to take advantage of the war conflict.
Anna Navarro, from the distant United States, will be pulling a thread that ends up becoming a dirty rope sunk in the most stinking of world economic interests.
The Bourne Affair
I could have avoided quoting Jason Bourne on this podium, but it wouldn't be fair either. Because the truth is that with this character an incomparable intrigue was born that plays with the identity of the character himself, with the added difficulty of double spies and hidden interests.
Because Jason Bourne is not entirely clear who he is, until certain details are confronting him with a reality that is watering. Because it is there, between the waters of the sea where Bourne is rescued by a ship, like a fish wounded by a gunshot and without any memory of the current that led him there.
Until Bourne begins to find certain clues that lead him to the most frantic adventure of identity in a world that seems designed to conspire against him. Here below are some editions and the pack of the first 5 installments ...
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