Robert
Ludlum's The Arctic Event ,
by James H. Cobb (Read by Jeff Woodman)
This entry in Robert Ludlum's
Covert One series gives new meaning to the term "cold
war." After a research team on tiny Wednesday Island
in the Canadian Arctic discovers the frozen wreckage of a
vintage military airplane, embarrassed Russian authorities
admit the plane was theirs and that it had been carrying 2
metric tons of anthrax when it disappeared 50 years earlier.
Not wanting to jeopordize 21st Century Soviet-American harmony
by igniting old hostilities and fears, U. S. President Castillo
sends Lt. Col. Jon Smith and his Covert-One team to secretly
retrieve and contain the anthrax. Smith is joined by CIA operative
Randi Russell and Professor Valentina Metrace, both of whom
are beautiful as well as highly skilled agents. The U.S.'s
new best friends, the Russians, dispatch their own scientists
and agents to join the team and to help avert an international
disaster. The anthrax, however, is not the only Soviet secret
the aircraft contains, and the Covert-One team is not the
only group hoping to salvage the deadly payload.
James H. Cobb ably carries on
Robert Ludlum's legacy of Covert-One adventures in this audio
book. In addition to telling a good story, Cobb provides historical
and environmental perspectives that will let the reader come
away from the book with a greater understanding of Soviet-American
relations and the impact of politics on environmental issues.
Cobb's prose evokes vivid images, as when he describes Wednesday
and her sister islands as "crumbs of continent"
in the Canadian Arctic. As engaging as Cobb's adventure is,
Jeff Woodman, the phenomenal narrator, makes it even more
engrossing. He deftly peoples the book with accented male
and female voices from several nationalities while sustaining
a passionate narrative, told with appropriate degrees of tension,
anguish and warmth.
The multinational forces of good
guys and bad guys keep the listener's curiosity piqued from
beginning to end. Just as it's not always clear to Smith and
his team who their allies and enemies are, the listener is
also never sure whether to root for or against the various
players. Despite betrayals, murders and international treachery,
the main characters behave admirably and make us hope to be
able to follow their exploits in still to be written future
thrillers.
Ruth
Mormon
4/25/08
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