Date first published	11 June 2009
ISBN Number	978 1 4091 0161 1
Page Count	423 h/b
h/b= hardback : p/b= paperback

Storyline

The Bourne Deception picks up where The Bourne Sanction left off. Jason Bourne's nemesis, Arkadin, is still hot on his trail and the two continue their struggle, reversing roles of hunter and hunted.

When Bourne is ambushed and badly wounded, he fakes his death and goes into hiding. In safety, he takes on a new identity, and begins a mission to find out who tried to assassinate him. Jason begins to question who he really is, how much of him is tied up in the Bourne identity, and what he would become if that was suddenly taken away from him.

Meanwhile, an American passenger airliner is shot down over Egypt by what seems to be an Iranian missile. A massive global investigative team is assembled to get at the truth of the situation before it can escalate into an international scandal.

Jason Bourne's search for the man who shot him intersects with the search for the people that brought down the airliner, leading Bourne into one of the most deadly and challenging situations he has ever encountered. With the threat of a new world war brewing, Bourne finds himself in a race against time to uncover the truth and find the person behind his assault, all the while being stalked by his unknown nemesis.

Review

We seem to have an American backed private CIA - Black River, out to set up Iran in order to launch an all out attack on them, and to do this they hire an terrorist with his own agenda, which seems to to be to betray everyone.

Bourne seems to be living in Bali, and not interfering with anyone. Marie is dead, along with all the other characters that Bourne has associated with, Conklin, Mo. it seems to me that we are seeing the Ludlum Bourne being turned into the Matt Damon version, so that they can cash in on the film.

The author seems to have totally abandoned the original Bourne, and we now have a clone, but one that is miles away from the original man pulled out of the ocean half dead. Characters seem to be killed purely for the shock element, and not to advance the plot, unfortunately you start to wonder when the next one is going to be bumped off, with zero shock factor.

I did not find the book terribly engaging, there wasn't that I must find out what happened next. It also seems to be turning into some sort of magic/voodoo hocus -pocus mysticism rubbish. Something that I think was prominent in some of Van Lustabaders works. It is very out of place here

. I think that it is a mistake of authors, to think that a terrorist bent on a major operation would at the same time seek to draw into the plot someone who could ultimately mess the whole thing up, especially someone as dangerous as Bourne. Arkadin is supposed to be clever, and terrorists ultimately keep things simple in order to avoid being caught or destroyed, before they achieve their objective.

The storyline is reminiscent of the 2nd book in the trilogy, but does not have the same power, menace or threat of that book. It is sad to see a classic character like Bourne being gradually destroyed.

I have given the book a 3, but I have to say that it is very close to a 2. If you are an original Bourne book fan then I don't think that you will enjoy this. If you are a fan of the films then it might be for you. (Having said that I don't mind the films, once you get round the fact they are not the books.)

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