When I finished reading The Matarese Circle, I rediscovered my love for espionage. I knew right away that I’d pick up the next one in the series in no time. Unlike other fans of the author (Robert Ludlum), I did not have to wait long to read the sequel. I picked The Matarese Coutdown within 30 days of finishing part 1, instead of waiting for 18 years!
For people who have not read The Matarese Circle, I’d advise you not to read this post any further as it might contain spoilers.
Jumping right into the book, The Matarese Countdown starts some 20 years after the events of The Matarese Circle. Brandon Scoffield, a.ka. Beowolf Agate, the CIA agent who put an end to the Matarese, is now enjoying a quiet life in the Caribbean with his wife, Antonia. With Taleniekov, his nemesis-turned-friend dead, Scoffield is the single person alive who has any idea about who or what the Matarese are. But with the Matarese destroyed, why is that even relevant now, you ask. It is very much relevant because there seems to be a resurgence of many Matarese-like activities worldwide.
To investigate this further, the CIA enlists the services of one Agent Cameron Pryce (touted to be the next Brandon Scoffield). Cameron’s first task is to bring Scoffield back from hiding. Together, they fight enemies old and new to finally get to the bottom of the Matarese’s conspiracy for worldwide economic domination, a.k.a Boardroom Terrorism. Their journey takes us from the calm waters of the Caribbean, to the urban jungles of New York and London, and fittingly ends in the hills of Corsica, where it all began at the start of the 20th century.
This book is nowhere as good as the first one. Granted, it did keep me hooked enough to read the entire book. But it took me more than a month to do so. I would not classify this one as an unputdownable spy thriller. I found it to be verbose under many instances, where you could not wait for the lead characters to stop talking in circles and get to the crux of it. There was something off with the editing as well. For instance, throughout the book, Ludlum uses a variety of names for the lead characters. Within a single paragraph, Scoffield is called Brandon, Bray, Scoffield, Beowolf, and you begin to wonder – why? The same goes for Cameron. He is Cameron, Cam, Pryce- all within a few sentences. Though we know they are referring to the same person, it does get annoying after a point(mind you, it is a 570-page book, and there are so many characters-this multiple name thingy can get to you).
The Matarese Countdown is a lengthy read. Lengthier than The Matarese Circle. But it lacks the punch that was there in the first one. Probably because the two were written almost twenty years apart. The Matarese Countdown was also one of the last books to be written by Ludlum before his demise. Read this book if you enjoyed The Matarese Circle, read it if you love the works of Ludlum. But if not, then skip this book altogether. There are much better spy thrillers out there!
The Invisibility Cloak 