The Moscow Vector by Robert Ludlum and Patrick Larkin : Good In parts

Well this is going to be my first book review. And as I have not been reading book reviews (or for that matter a lot of books) it might not be a standard good to read kind of book review.

Moscow Vector, the second last book from the Robert Ludlum's covert-one series which was completed by Patrick Larkin after Ludlum's Death is a fair thriller with espionage and military angles attached to it.

characters and story

The book tries to extend the cold war days to the present day with an Over ambitious Russian president Victor Dudarev, at the helm of the sly malign intentions of capturing the other states and building the lost glory of USSR again. Its a story of military aggressiveness by the Russian president backed with a precise, lethal bio-weapon HYDRA which attacks a persons DNA and alters the cell growth eventually stopping it completely. The biological weapon is funded by a Serbian Billionaire Malkovic, who wants his piece of pie from Viktor Dudarev's aggression. The business man hires a bio-weapon expert German scientist Wulf Renke and an organization giving cover to all of them which is headed by Eric Brandt. A whole list of villains, who wants to give an answer to the ever increasing American power, plans the mission to perfection.

Now it is up to the good guys to save the smaller countries with which Russia shares the border and also lives of many American Military heads and ministers. The flock of the good guys led by Dr. Jon Smith, who happens to be a Medical doctor studying the genesis of a lethal disease killing many of the top notch ministers, and is also a secret agent with CIA on the covert-one mission to work on this project. He is accompanies by a beautiful, ever charming Fiona Devin and Oleg Kirov, an Ex Russian secret agent. The 3 of them together tries to find the details of the deadly disease as well as the intention of the Russian premier for America. The cat and mouse games between them and the Russian militia have been depicted in detail throughout the Novel. There is one more good girl, Randi Russel, working for CIA in Germany spying on to find Wulf Renke and his latest ventures. All of them connects at the end to destroy the power of bio-weapon and makes the ugly intentions of Russian President a failure.

Thumbs Up

The story moves on quickly from one clue to another and from one escapade to another for the good guys ending into the end of bad guys’ bad intentions. The good thing about the story is there are no side stories; there is nothing to get you off the roller coaster ride planned for you. The way the events shape up and continues spreading across the geography of all continents keeps your interest alive to read on. 2 good things that I liked about the book were:

• The discussion that the US president Sam Castilla has with the Russian president at the end. Blunt, straight to the point, American style.
• Author lures in the reader to think for romantic angles between the American spies till the end but does not explicitly write anything about it till the end. The last lines hence brings a smile to your face before you keep the book down.

Thumbs down
But the Novel had its own set of shortcomings. Firstly, it has a very one-dimensional characterization of the different lead characters. That totally works against connecting to the characters. Certain sections within the novel seem over the top and unbelievable. There being no side stories at times it seems that you are going through similar events and situation again and again, though it is not making the story monotonous but it does not make you run to the next page with excitement.

For me the book was a good read with Fair story, not so good Not so bad treatment, uninteresting in parts read with a lot left to be done. The author could have written it a lot better.

Read it if you have to go on a long journey or want to concentrate on other things too along with the book.

2.5 * out of 5 for the book from my side.