by Eric van Lustbader

Head of Zeus, out now

A Russian plot to destabilize the West with links to a murky past – can agent Evan Ryder survive to defeat it?

I know Van Lustbader’s work primarily from his contributions to the Jason Bourne mythos which came to a halt with the publication this year of Brian Freeman’s reboot of the series – and the plot description on Wikipedia of what was alleged to be his final story, The Bourne Nemesis, is highly reminiscent of elements of this opener for the new series, featuring female agent Evan Ryder. (Which probably means crossed wires somewhere as Van Lustbader was working on this book before Trump’s election in 2016). There’s a lot of similarities between Ryder and Bourne, not least that they’re both (at least initially in Jason’s case) haunted by things from their past that they can’t remember.

Robert Ludlum, Bourne’s creator, was hailed in a recent interview with Anthony Horowitz for being able to make you change your mind about characters almost totally as each chapter unfolds, and Van Lustbader does this a lot here, although often it’s a question of which particular evil one or other person is working for or with. You can almost get whiplash from the way things turn, and Van Lustbader can lead you to make assumptions about the plot that you realise have been deliberate misdirection.

Like Bourne, Ryder and her fellow agents are lethal weapons, used to deal with situations that might be beyond others, and the action sequences in this are excellently told. Some of the geopolitics, though, is as unsubtle as a brick, and I really hope that the senior officers in the various Russian intelligence services have more polish than they’re presented here (and that’s before the descriptions of the Sovereign…)

Verdict: Plenty of twists and turns, but its unsubtle geopolitics means it’s not sufficiently engaging. 6/10

Paul Simpson