Robert Ludlum's the Bourne Betrayal by Eric Van Lustbader (2007, Hardcover)

Having read the original Bourne novels by Robert Ludlum as well as some of Eric Van Lustbader's books, I looked forward to reading this new offering. The story line (Jason Bourne's missing memories, a potential nuclear terrorist attack on a major USA city, and a plot involving Central Intelligence) is complex and interesting, the background settings are described well and in detail, the terrorists are appropriately nasty and fanatical, but overall the novel reads more like an episode of Jack Bauer in '24' rather than a Jason Bourne book. The novel is at least 100 pages too long; a good editor would have helped here. Additionally, the author relies too much on background description to move the plot along, sacrificing the dialogue that would have added depth, humanity, and complexity to the characters. None of the characters in this story engaged me the way the original Bourne character did in Ludlum's 'The Bourne Identity.'