Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Book Review - The Bancroft Strategy

Name of book: The Bancroft Strategy

Author: Robert Ludlum

Category: Fiction

Keeping in line with the Ludlum international thrillers, the latest product of Robert Ludlum [published posthumously and completed by a ghost writer, I believe] is about people with money and misguided ideals. Correction, make that people with lots and lots of money and a will to use it for the ‘betterment’ of the world.

When Todd Belknap - a field agent for Consular Operations with a reputation as something of a cowboy - is cut loose from the agency after an operation goes wrong, his best friend and fellow agent is abducted in Lebanon by a vicious militia group. When the government refuses to help, Belknap decides to take matters into his own hands. Meanwhile, hedge fund analyst Andrea Newton gets an unexpected call - she has been left six million dollars by a cousin she’s never met. But there’s one condition: she must agree to sit on the board of the Newton foundation, a charitable organization run by the family patriarch, Paul Newton. Having never even met the family - her mother was married only briefly and cut all contact many years ago - Andrea is intrigued. But the foundation, supposedly dedicated to doing good deeds, appears less and less benign the more deeply involved she gets… What exactly is their involvement with the ‘Genesis’ - a mysterious group working to destabilize the geopolitical balance at the risk of millions of lives? As events escalate, Todd and Andrea must form an uneasy alliance if they are to uncover the truth behind ‘Genesis’ - before it’s too late.

As usual, we can expect brilliant reading fare from the master and he doesn’t disappoint!