I'm a big fan of the work of Robert Ludlum, and have now read most of his books. When I read a Robert Ludlum book it's like DRIVING MISS DAISY in the sense that I'm in the hands of a consummate professional, no matter how insane the ride. Well, Ludlum's dead, so what now?
Well, I've flipped through a couple of official copy-cat novels, the Bourne progressions and the Covert Ones, by official imitators of Ludlum's content and they've all left a nasty taste in my mouth, a wishy-washyness a-lack-of-voiceness one gets reading the post-DUNE-pre books of Frank Herbert's son. I've even suspected, hoped, prayed (lol) that David Wolstencroft might be the one to pick up Ludlum's mantle, the writer with whom I can feel is LIVING THE INTELLIGENCE LIE as he writes his books.
Olen Steinhauer might just be the one; his plots are sinister and convoluted and his writing, the line-by-line of his craft, is just superb.
I found THE NEAREST EXIT (2010) quite by chance, taking central-library-borrowed THE TOURIST (2007) back to the local library on a rainy day. And it just happens to be the follow-up to The Tourist. And it's just as amazing as that book was. I hear that George Clooney has bought the cinematic rights to these books - it'd be great to see 'Milo Weaver' on the big screen.Robert Ludlum's successor has finally arrived - great writer, great books.
SUPPLEMENTAL: Sarah Shourd, one of the three American tourists arrested for illegal entry into Iran was on BBC TV this morning explaining how she and her friends were just TOURISTS, captured in Iraq and secreted into Iran. Their captors even 'stopped and bought Shourd a jehab' on the way to the police station for questioning. Things that make you go, "Hmm..." Thanks Olen Steinhauer, I now see the world in a totally different light.
