Robert Ludlum's The Altman Code

A Covert-One Novel

By: Robert Ludlum, Gayle Lynds

Narrated by: Don Leslie

Length: 15 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's summary

On the dark waterside docks of Shanghai, a photographer is recording cargo being secretly loaded when he's brutally killed and his camera destroyed. Shortly thereafter Covert-One director Fred Klein brings the word to the President that there's a Chinese cargo ship rumored to be carrying tons of chemicals to be used by a rogue nation to create new biological weapons. Klein is ordered to get the President solid proof of what the Chinese ship is ferrying.

Covert-One agent Jon Smith is sent to Taiwan to meet with another agent who has acquired the ship's true manifest. But before Smith can get it, they are ambushed, the second agent is murdered, the proof is destroyed, and Smith escapes with only his life and scant clues to mystery behind the cargo ship. As the Chinese cargo ship draws ever closer to its end port, Smith must race against the clock to uncover the truth about the ship and its cargo, a truth that probes the deepest secrets of the Chinese ruling party, the faction in Washington working to undermine the elected government, and the international cabal who is thrusting the world to the very brink of war.

©2003 Myn Pyn, LLC (P)2003 Audio Renaissance, a division of Holtzbrinck Publishers, LLC.

Different Reader!

i liked this story about as much as the other covert-one novels. but since i listened to it directly after the Paris Option, it was very jarring to me to have a new reader, especially since i liked the reader of the first three so much. the new reader isn't annoying or anything, but i would have listened to something different in between if i had realized.

Not worth a review, much less a listen!

This "thriller" trades in on the Ludlum name, but doesn't provide a plot that makes sense. Characters make really stupid statements, such as the Vice President asking for the name of a covert agent who is in the field so he can pray fror him - this in a White House which is "riddled with leaks." As if that provides a "need-to-know." I lasted to the end to see if there was a reward for the diligent listener; there wasn't. Sadly, when authors die their talent dies with them.

This book was Bad!

This excruciatingly boring book started with a simple, mediocre premise, then proceded to stagnate for hundreds of pages, going on and on with absolutely no advancement in the plot, like a car stuck in the mud. If you're a Ludlum fan like I am, you will be acutely disappointed in this bomb, so skip it! I wish I had.

Ludlum didn't write this

What a disappointment from a long-time Ludlum fan - I would bet the farm he didn't write any of this. It's an embarrasement to his name. Bumbling idiot for a hero. Liberal morality seeping in all over the place. Talks down to the reader. Painful attempt at history lessons. Falls short on all the things Ludlum excelled at. Ludlum's typical "mortal" hero makes embarrasingly amateurish mistakes. The lack of absolute right and wrong gives way to lecturing and concern over death toll. The plot is clumsy, with way too much explanation. I don't even know what to say...

Not up to the other Covert One Novels...

I too, have read all the Covert One novels. This one took quite a while to really get into the story. It would finally get moving, then bog down in details again. This is my least favorite of the Covert One novels and I was disappointed that Peter Howell and Marty Zellerbach didn't make an appearance in this one. The ending was weak. I'm not sure I'd try another Covert One novel. Too bad, the series had such a good start!

ONE OF LUDMANS BEST

FATS PACED...EASY LISTENING..SUSPENCFUL...

Reader was horrible. Used same voice for everybody

Struggle to finish. The narrator used the same voice for almost every character. Very difficult to distinguish who was talking..

predictable pastiche

this newest Covert One novel concerns the hunt for a cargo manifest for a Chinese ship carrying contraband chemicals to Iraq. Poorly written with a ridiculous plot and comic book characters, this book trades on Ludlum's name and is not worth anyone's time.

Absolutly Awful....

I probably shouldn't be writing a review. I couldn't even finish this boring, vapid audiobook. Try something else.