Having read several of Van Lustbader's other works I was excited with the prospect of him bringing new life to a series that has not had a really good book since The Bourne Identity. This book did not live up to my expectations and I might add it was not as good as any of the two follow-ups that Ludlum had penned to the original novel.
A high ranking US Government official makes a deal with a Russian military type to have Jason Bourne assasinated if the Russian will do the same to a suspected terrorist leader. The Russian agrees and unbeknownst to the American, the Russian is really Bourne's arch-enemy Arkadin who Bourne thought he killed in the last book.
Meanwhile Bourne is in hiding in Bali with his latest girlfriend (Moira) and Arkadin learns his whereabouts and comes to assasinate him. Thinking the deed is accomplished, Arkadin heads on to other business. Meanwhile Bourne cheats death in an implausible way.
Then a US airlines is shot down over Egypt by what appears to be an Iranian fanatic group and the US may be headed for war in Iran. Bourne will eventually be drawn into all of this and we also have an appearance in the book of Conklin's (the man who trained by Bourne and Arkadin) successor.
The book drags throughout and most of the characters are one-dimensional. Bourne is nowhere near the person who tackled his identity problem in the first book and grappled between his David Webb and Bourne personnas. Instead we have a very shallow, boring Bourne and it really kills any semblance of magic the book may have.
I hope that this series can be gracefully put to bed but it seems that we will be subjected to at least one more sequel.
