On a snowy night in northern Russia, balding and bedridden Maria Yuriskaya prepares herself for the last rites of death. When a priest approaches her bed and asks for a confession, she unloads a whopper of a secret and sets off The Matarese Countdown. Apparently, the accidental killing of her world-class nuclear physicist husband by a wild bear was not an accident after all. The death was a set up and Maria knows who did it. The priest thinks she's having a senile fit, but she's serious. So serious, that uttering the dreaded words, "The Matarese ... the consummate evil" seems to vacuum the life right out of her. The legendary Matarese, the planet-threatening dynasty of killers from The Matarese Circle, is back and up to their evil tricks. The grandson of The Matarese, a laissez-faire fundamentalist with a bad case of ancestor-worship plans to finish his grandfather's wicked designs. However, political-science prodigy and CIA rookie Cameron Pryce is on the case. Armed with several languages and even more degrees, Pryce races around the world and against the clock to stop the deadly posse. Fast-paced and action-packed, The Matarese Countdown is a must for Ludlum fans, but it's not for sissies. Rugged, macho observations abound: "They waded into shore as the clattering motors came to a stop, and as women tend to do, Leslie and Toni embraced," and "Maybe the women would change your mind. After all, it was the women, the mothers, who got us all through the Ice Age. In the animal kingdom, the female is the most vicious in protecting her young." In other words, if a post Ice Age feminist read this book and ran into Ludlum, she probably wouldn't embrace him.


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From AudioFile
THE MATARESE COUNTDOWN continues the story of THE MATARESE CIRCLE twenty years later with Baywolf Agate and Cameron Pryce tracking down the descendents of a secret group who continue to try to destroy the fabric of society. Stephen Lang's deep, emotive voice draws the listener into the web of deceit and conspiracy, which involves every facet of the world's economy and politics. Lang's performance captures the tension between good and evil that Ludlum has created. This tension, combined with the plot, becomes an unstoppable force that feeds upon itself until it erupts in the destruction of the Matarese, for now. M.B.K. (c) AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine


Review
"Welcome to Robert Ludlum's world...fast pacing, tight plotting, international intrigue."
Cleveland

"If a Pulitzer Prize were awarded for escapist fiction, Robert Ludlum undoubtedly would have won it. Ten times over."



Review
"Welcome to Robert Ludlum's world...fast pacing, tight plotting, international intrigue."
Cleveland

"If a Pulitzer Prize were awarded for escapist fiction, Robert Ludlum undoubtedly would have won it. Ten times over."



Book Description
Twenty years ago, top agents from the CIA and KGB banded together to bring down the Matarese Circle, an international cabal of powerbrokers and assassins whose sole objective was to achieve worldwide economic domination. Now the bloody Matarese dynasty is back--and the only man with the power to stop it may have already run out of time....CIA case officer Cameron Pryce is hot on the trail of the new Matarese alliance. His only chance to terminate its ruthless activities is to follow the trail of blood money and stone-cold killers right to the heart of its deadly conspiracy.From the Hamptons to London's Belgrave Square, Matarese assassins have already struck with brutal efficiency, eliminating all who stand in their way. Their chain of violence is impossible to stop--until Pryce gets a rare break. One of the Matarese's victims survives long enough to whisper dying words that will blow the case wide open: the top secret code name for legendary retired CIA agent Brandon Scofield--the only man who has ever infiltrated the Matarese inner circle and lived to tell about it.


From the Publisher
"Welcome to Robert Ludlum's world...fast pacing, tight plotting, international intrigue."
Cleveland"If a Pulitzer Prize were awarded for escapist fiction, Robert Ludlum undoubtedly would have won it. Ten times over."



From the Inside Flap
Twenty years ago, top agents from the CIA and KGB banded together to bring down the Matarese Circle, an international cabal of powerbrokers and assassins whose sole objective was to achieve worldwide economic domination. Now the bloody Matarese dynasty is back--and the only man with the power to stop it may have already run out of time....

CIA case officer Cameron Pryce is hot on the trail of the new Matarese alliance. His only chance to terminate its ruthless activities is to follow the trail of blood money and stone-cold killers right to the heart of its deadly conspiracy.

From the Hamptons to London's Belgrave Square, Matarese assassins have already struck with brutal efficiency, eliminating all who stand in their way. Their chain of violence is impossible to stop--until Pryce gets a rare break. One of the Matarese's victims survives long enough to whisper dying words that will blow the case wide open: the top secret code name for legendary retired CIA agent Brandon Scofield--the only man who has ever infiltrated the Matarese inner circle and lived to tell about it.

FROM OUR EDITORS

The Barnes & Noble Review
November 1997

Long considered a master of the international-espionage superthriller, novelist Robert Ludlum has written eight No. 1 New York Times hardcover-fiction bestsellers and 11 No. 1 New York Times paperback-fiction bestsellers. With his latest offering of suspense and high-stakes intrigue, The Matarese Countdown, Ludlum brings back the Matarese, the sinister cabal whose ultimate purpose is worldwide economic domination via a deadly Machiavellian manifesto: by any means necessary.

Originally destroyed by a tenuous KGB-CIA alliance in 1979's The Matarese Circle, the insidious Matarese dynasty has returned in all its glory and evil to the highest reaches of global finance and government. CIA agent Cameron Pryce is the lone man with enough knowledge to stop them, but as the title suggests, he may not have enough time — Matarese assassins have already struck with brutal efficiency, eliminating all who stand in their way.

Pryce's only hope lies in the faint last gasp of a dying victim of the Matarese: "Find Beowulf Agate...." "Beowulf Agate," as Pryce soon discovers, is the code name for retired field agent Brandon Scofield, the only man ever to penetrate the Matarese organization and survive. Now Pryce must draw Scofield and his wife out of their blissful Caribbean paradise and back into a place they never thought they would have to go again: the chilling Matarese circle of death.

Reaching from the oil fields of the Persian Gulf to the boardrooms of Manhattan, from the hills of Corsicato the halls ofpower in Washington, the circle is closing, and the panic is spreading. And Pryce has made a shocking new discovery: The Matarese conspiracy may have penetrated further than anyone could have imagined — to deep within the very walls of CIA headquarters itself.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

November 1997

Long considered a master of the international-espionage superthriller, novelist Robert Ludlum has written eight number-one New York Times hardcover-fiction bestsellers and 11 number-one New York Times paperback-fiction bestsellers. With his latest offering of suspense and high-stakes intrigue, The Matarese Countdown, Ludlum brings back the Matarese, the sinister cabal whose ultimate purpose is worldwide economic domination via a deadly Machiavellian manifesto: by any means necessary.

Originally destroyed by a tenuous KGB-CIA alliance in 1979's The Matarese Circle, the insidious Matarese dynasty has returned in all its glory and evil to the highest reaches of global finance and government. CIA agent Cameron Pryce is the lone man with enough knowledge to stop them, but as the title suggests, he may not have enough time -- Matarese assassins have already struck with brutal efficiency, eliminating all who stand in their way.

Pryce's only hope lies in the faint last gasp of a dying victim of the Matarese: "Find Beowulf Agate...." "Beowulf Agate," as Pryce soon discovers, is the code name for retired field agent Brandon Scofield, the only man ever to penetrate the Matarese organization and survive. Now Pryce must draw Scofield and his wife out of their blissful Caribbean paradise and back into a place they never thought they would have to go again: the chilling Matarese circle of death.

Reaching from the oil fields of the Persian Gulf to the boardrooms of Manhattan, from the hills of Corsica to the halls of power in Washington, the circle is closing, and the panic is spreading. And Pryce has made a shocking new discovery: The Matarese conspiracy may have penetrated further than anyone could have imagined -- to deep within the very walls of CIA headquarters itself.

FROM THE CRITICS

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