Robert Lundlum may be dead, but this book based on his Covert One characters still makes the grade. Watch out Jason Bourne, your sibligs may be getting movies before you know it.

The book takes place in a smattering of interesting places, from Moscow to Bahgdad and Washington to Berlin. The action is always high paced, if not nearly unbelievable at times. There are some situations which had me cheering out loud as the good guys squeaked through. The Kremlin, the Russian President (who is not named Vladimir Putin, but is described almost identically), and a rouge Virologist thought dead since the fall of the Berlin wall all conspire to allow Russia to stage a reclamation of the former Soviet Republics. A strange disease starts killing off all experts on Russian politics as well as qualified military commanders in the former Soviet States.

Not quite as far fetched as you may think. This book presents situations that could easily be ripped from today’s newpaper headlines. Patrick Larkin does a good job of writing the plot twists in the same style as Lundlum would have chosen.

I want to go read the rest of the Covert One novels as soon as I can!