First Daughter, by Eric van Lustbader

December 17, 2010 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: book review, Eric van Lustbader, Thriller 

This is a thriller featuring a newly elected – but still not inaugurated – First Daughter, by Eric van Lustbader president in some future point in time, in an America where the religious right seems to be much stronger than now. Alli Carson, the 19-year-old daughter of the U.S. president-elect, moderate Republican Edward Carson, is abducted a month before her father’s inauguration to be programmed to do something truly terrible at the inauguration ceremony.

ATF agent Jack McClure, who has previously come to the attention of Edward Carson, is chosen to play a prominent role in the search for Alli, primarily because she was the boarding-school roommate of his now-deceased daughter, Emma. Jack faces many difficulties, chief among them his own severe dyslexia. As we learn more about him, it becomes evident that he is a mess. He struggles with the demons of his youth, and has severe guilt over the death of his daughter and a very problematic and unresolved relationship to his ex-wife.

The unnamed current president, who makes religion the basis for all his decisions, wants to use the search as an excuse for all-out war on his enemies, the First American Secular Revivalists and their secret partners, the E-Two terrorist group.

Lustbader does a fine job of depicting the search for Alli, but I found the story and plot clear enough and good, but at the same time Lustbader mixes into the brew this time some confusing political message will leave many readers wondering what the book was really about. Also, the side stories and background provided in flashbacks was not all that interesting and oftentimes not all that relevant either. I think of this book primarily as a book for Lustbader fans.

Links to Eric van Lustbaders books at amazon US, amazon UK, and amazon CAN.

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The Bourne Deception, by Eric van Lustbader, Robert Ludlum

November 28, 2009 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: book review, Eric van Lustbader, Jason Bourne, Robert Ludlum, Thriller 

Robert Ludlum died in March 2001, but even so The Bourne Deception, by Eric van Lustbader & Robert Ludlum new Jason Bourne novels keep coming. I consider Robert Ludlum as one of the best thriller writers ever. And the Jason Bourne books were among his best. So somebody must have decided there was a market for Jason Bourne’s adventures even after Ludlum’s death. So now follow-ups are written by author Eric Van Lustbader. Lustbader has written 20 or so more or less best-selling novels, and should be able to take on this mission.

In this book a very highly placed American makes a deal with a Russian to have Bourne killed – once more. And in exchange for this, the Americans will kill a terrorist for the Russians (a bit of a shift from the old days, when the *Russians supposedly supported terrorists?) A Russian sniper, who turns out to be Leonid Arkadin (see The Bourne Sanction) finds Jason Bourne in Bali. He shoots him, hitting him square in the chest, but somehow the very severely hurt Bourne escapes and lives.

Then the canvas widens. A US airplane is shot down over Egypt. War hawks plot for an American invasion of Iran. A rouge American security outfit with extremely greedy owners meddles with intelligence reports and kills high ranking US Government officials. The American Secretary of Defense pushes for war to increase his own standing in the government.

The plot in The Bourne Deception is rich and past paced. And there is lots of action – almost too much, in the sense that it feels a little like sitting in a roller coaster train. The plot moves along, but its underpinnings are weak and strange, the logic that drives it a little artificial, and in the midst of it all Van Lustbader – who has a metaphysical leaning – throws in a little meta-physics (something Ludlum would never have done!).

I have to say I have read the follow-ups to Ludlum’s Jason Bourne novels by Eric van Lustbader with growing frustration. More and more I experience the books as overwhelmed by movie-like action descriptions as a substitute for intelligent plots and clever dynamics. The Bourne Deception I liked even less than the previous. To my mind, these books are now moving into a territory where only for the really diehard fans of the Jason Bourne saga will enjoy them.

Links to Lustbader’s books at amazon US, amazon UK, and amazon CAN.

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