Robert Ludlum's The Arctic Event (Covert-One Series #7)

by Robert Ludlum, James H. Cobb

Overview

On a remote island in the Canadian Arctic, researchers discover the wreckage of a mysterious World War II-era aircraft, a discovery that forces the Russian Federation into a shocking admission. The unmarked plane is a Soviet strategic bomber that disappeared with its crew more than fifty years ago while carrying two metric tons of weaponized anthrax.

Desperate to prevent a political and diplomatic firestorm, the U.S. president dispatches a Covert-One team led by Lieutenant Colonel Jon Smith to the crash site. But others have reached the frigid, windswept island first, including an international arms dealer and his crew of vicious mercenaries. As for the Russians, they are lying: a second, even deadlier secret rests within the hulk of the lost bomber, a secret the Russians are willing to kill to protect. Trapped in a polar wilderness, Smith and his team find themselves fighting a savage war on two fronts-against an enemy they can see and another hiding within their own ranks.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780446618779
Publisher:	Grand Central Publishing
Publication date:	11/01/2008
Series:	Covert-One Series , #7
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	512
Sales rank:	497,399
Product dimensions:	4.22(w) x 6.66(h) x 1.07(d)

About the Author

Robert Ludlum was the author of twenty-seven novels, each one a New York Times bestseller. There are more than 225 million of his books in print, and they have been translated into thirty-two languages. He is the author of The Scarlatti Inheritance, The Chancellor Manuscript, and the Jason Bourne series — The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy, and The Bourne Ultimatum — among others. Mr. Ludlum passed away in March 2001. To learn more, visit www.Robert-Ludlum.com.

James Cobb, a longtime mystery/thriller writer, is a graduate of the University of Puget Sound and an avid student of militaty history and technology. He is a member of the United States Naval Institute and the Navy League. He lives in the Pacific Northwest.

Date of Birth:

May 25, 1927

Date of Death:

March 12, 2001

Place of Death:

Naples, Florida

Education:

B.A., Wesleyan University, 1951

Website:

http://www.ludlumbooks.com/

Editorial Reviews

"Don't ever begin a Ludlum novel if you have to go to work the next day."—Chicago Sun-Times

"Welcome to Robert Ludlum's world...fast pacing, tight plotting, international intrigue."—Cleveland Plain Dealer

"Packed with all the classic Ludlum elements...the intricately engineered plot thunders forward at breakneck pace. Bottom Line: Perfectly executed."—People (on the Altman Code)

From the Publisher

"Welcome to Robert Ludlum's world...fast pacing, tight plotting, international intrigue."

Cleveland Plain Dealer

"Packed with all the classic Ludlum elements...the intricately engineered plot thunders forward at breakneck pace. Bottom Line: Perfectly executed."

People (on the Altman Code)

"Don't ever begin a Ludlum novel if you have to go to work the next day."

Chicago Sun-Times

James H. Cobb is no Robert Ludlum. Although he wasn't a great prose stylist, Ludlum (who died in 2001) could keep a story engine churning like nobody's business. Compared to him, Cobb is a plodding, mechanical, cliché-ridden hired hand. And Jeff Woodman can't do much to make things more exciting-or even interesting-as he reads this tangled tale. Woodman has the vocal talents necessary to make the third-person narration work, and he does his best to create believable voices for the male and female members of a search team and their villainous adversaries-Russians, North Koreans and private mercenaries. But Cobb undercuts him at virtually every turn, the story moving like sticky syrup as a top secret Covert-One team of specialists hunt for a crashed WWII bomber and a deadly toxin that could destroy all life on the planet. Simultaneous release with the Grand Central paperback. (Sept.)

Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information

Publishers Weekly

Robert Ludlum's THE ARCTIC EVENT marks yet another posthumous novel for the legendary writer. This one is delivered by James H. Cobb and read by Jeff Woodman. Woodman elevates this serviceable spy novel with an outstanding narration. On its own, the story provides good reading as a mild diversion, but Woodman really animates the characters, handling the different accents and genders well. Listeners can feel a degree of panic as the recurring Covert One character, Jon Smith, and his crew find themselves on an Arctic island, surrounded by hostile forces. A Soviet plane that went down there in the 1950s has an anthrax payload, but there’s more to this crash than biological agents—and the Iron Curtain could fall again. E.D.H. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine

FEB/MAR 08 - AudioFile