Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Shadow (Jason Bourne)
“the tangled web of mysteries keeps the reader guessing. At the end, the author uses strands from the web to set the stage for the next novel in the series.”
Fans of the Jason Bourne character created by Robert Ludlum will enjoy this continuation of his story. New readers drawn to spying, political intrigue, and conspiracies will come to know a complex, troubled character fending off threats from every direction.
As usual, Bourne—also known as Cain and David Webb—struggles to regain memories blown away by a past bullet wound to the head: “Jason felt the roaring he always felt in his head as memories fought to come back and bumped into a wall of nothingness. His brain grasped to remember this woman. He’d loved her. He’d wanted to spend his whole life with her. But then his life had changed overnight. He became Treadstone. He became Cain. From that moment forward, there was no turning back.”
And yet his skills in meting out violence are ever ready and his instantaneous, instinctive reactions save him from all manner of attacks. “Bourne stood over the body of the guard known as Beau, who bled out at his feet, his throat cut open by a slash from a Thompson SOCP knife. The second guard . . . twitched ten feet away, his neck broken, his last breaths gasping in the Swiss night air.”
Gun violence, as well, is a constant threat, sometimes directed at Bourne and his associates. “What looked like a fly landing on his forehead was the hole left by a bullet tunneling soundlessly into his brain. As the man slid off the chair, more bullets hit the windows behind Bourne and ricocheted off the metal table with sharp pings. He threw himself to the ground, drawing his Sig Sauer into his hand, and rolled onto his stomach, arms extended.”
And, sometimes, death comes from guns in Bourne’s hands: “Then a separate fusillade erupted from the front of the restaurant. The second killer fired across the café, his arms together in a tight V. Around them, diners screamed, throwing themselves under the tables and scrambling for the exits. Bourne lifted his wrist and shot back, once, twice, three times, landing a shot in the man’s chest with the third bullet. He fired once more, another hit, and the man fell.”
The spy’s skills behind the wheel are also on display. “He checked the mirror. The Mercedes had dropped back again, and he couldn’t see it behind them. Immediately, he leaned his foot into the accelerator, and the Audi jumped forward with the growl of a cheetah. They were close to town, where the road was barely wider than the car. Smoothly, Jason navigated a series of tight turns and shot down a wooded straightaway past the crowns of evergreens rising out of the valley. As they cleared the forest, the granite cliffs became a blur. His speedometer crept to eighty miles an hour.”
Much of the story revolves around political upheaval in France, with riots and demonstrations orchestrated by a candidate promising a return to the past for the nation, eliminating immigration and the cultural diversity that results. Behind the scenes, another shadowy, secretive organization pursues Bourne. The author sets the stage for a clandestine meeting: “Protocol dictated that none of the participants arrive via personal vehicles or car services that could be tracked. Anonymity was key. That meant taking taxis or the Métro, and even taxis were discouraged. A driver might recognize and remember a face.”
Bourne’s lost memories are a constant complication, making it difficult, often impossible, to know who is on his side, who to trust, who should live, and who must die as he pursues a mystifying woman from his forgotten past, while accompanied by a woman he believes he is getting to know. As is the case with a Jason Bourne story, the tangled web of mysteries keeps the reader guessing. At the end, the author uses strands from the web to set the stage for the next novel in the series.