Date first published	1977
ISBN Number	0 75285-858-0
Page Count	488 p/b
h/b= hardback : p/b= paperback

Storyline

Peter Chancellor is an academic, who has written a paper on the dealings of high government with the old Nazi regime. The paper is thrown out, dismissed as rubbish. Chancellor seeing his career in ruins is directed to take his writing in another direction.

A few years later Chancellor, is leading the high life in Malibu, when he is approached by a man claiming that J Edgar Hoover the most powerful FBI director was murdered, and that his personal files on the high and mighty had disappeared.

Chancellor starts his enquiry, not believing that the story will hold up, but becomes convinced after meeting with a respected High Court Judge. As he delves into the murky waters of the missing files the body count starts to rise. Can he find the files, before he to becomes another fatality?

Review

After reading the awful Road to Gandolfo, it was nice to see Ludlum back with a far better story. The central premise is quite good, although I have to admit that I don't know a great deal about Hoover. However the idea that such a man could set himself above the law, and for an intellectual elite to decide that he has to be taken out is quite good.

The early part of the book is well done, but I did feel towards the end that it ws struggling a bit. The section of the book where Chancellor, calls out the members of Inver Brass, to try and identify the leak, is very laboured, and doesn't come across well.

Other parts are well done, death and violence follow Chancellor wherever he goes, some of it designed to keep Chancellor off balance, others to stop his research into the missing files - which are never actually seen by Chancellor.

The characters are reasonably well drawn, the members of Inver Brass, high minded in there ideals to start with, are all old men, and they look to a new future with new members, who may not be what they seem. Varak is a different kettle of fish, a shadowy character, prone to violence, neither on the side of good but not totally evil either. His being as he is, is hinted at but never fully explored. Like many of Ludlum's other books there is a strong female character, Alison to help guide him through the bloody morass that he is faced with.

As to Chancellor himself he is a complex character, who I find hard to picture, a man of some integrity, but badly damaged goods. An academic, but very handy in a fight. I don't know many academics good in a fight!

To some up far better than Road to Gandolfo, but tales off when trying to work out who is the leak in Inver Brass.

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