This book is good, but not great. While the Covert One universe is still interesting and provides for lots of exciting action, this book seems to be poorly edited.

There are two plots, which are not at all related, other than by physical location and some of the people involved. The main plot is great, so the second plot just serves as a distraction, drawing the novel out. Cutting it would probably reduce the length of the novel by ⅓, but and not affect the main story negatively at all, and would prevent several occasions where it stretches the credulity of the reader. That part where they risk their daring mission to prevent terrible things from happening, only to have a nice feel-good moment? This novel would be so much better without it.

All that aside, still a great and interesting plot, if a bit long and from time to time tough to get through. ( )

De Amerikaanse marine houdt een Chinees vrachtschip in de gaten dat onderweg is naar Irak. Volgens onbevestigde bronnen bestaat de lading uit tonnen chemicaliën, waarmee een arsenaal aan nieuwe biologische wapens geproduceerd kan worden.
Om te voorkomen dat de lading haar eindbestemming bereikt, wil de Amerikaanse overheid het schip aanhouden. Maar alleen keihard bewijs van de dodelijke chemicaliën kan een ernstige diplomatieke crisis bezweren.

Jon Smith, als onderzoeker werkzaam bij het Amerikaanse leger, krijgt de opdracht dit bewijs onomstotelijk te leveren. In een race tegen de klok doet hij vervolgens een aantal verbijsterende ontdekkingen...

> Collombat Isabelle. Robert Ludlum et Gayle Lynds, LE CODE ALTMAN, Trad. de l'américain par Renaud Morin (Grasset, Paris, 2006, 494 p. ; 29,95 $)
In: Nuit blanche, No. 105 (hiver 2006–2007), p. 22. … ; (en ligne),
URL : https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/20028ac

> Babelio : https://www.babelio.com/livres/Ludlum-Le-Code-Altman/81927

The Altman Code is a fast-paced thriller, while written in the same vain as Robert Ludlum’s novels, the writing is actually better than much of Ludlum’s work. The novel starts off with an intriguing premise. When Covert-One agent Jon Smith goes to rendezvous with another agent in Taiwan to get a ship manifest implicating the Chinese of nefarious acts, the agent is killed, and the ship destroyed. Smith is left with a message from the agent that the President’s father, thought to be long dead, is alive and has been in a Chinese prison camp for the past fifty years.

In typical Ludlow fashion, conspiracies abound. There are all sorts of treachery at work. The novel fails because of the lack of believability in many aspects of the plot. There are things to like about this novel, and it is entertaining. If some of the plot holes could be tightened, then this could have been a very good novel instead of just a decent one.

Carl Alves – author of Blood Street ( )

"In the middle of the night, on the dark waterside docks of Shanghai, a photographer is recording cargo being secretly loaded when he's brutally killed and his camera destroyed. Shortly thereafter Covert-One director Fred Klein brings word to the president that there's a Chinese cargo ship rumored to be carrying tons of chemicals to be used by a rogue nation to create new biological weapons. The president cannot let the ship land and risk the consequences of a new stockpile of deadly chemical weapons. Klein is ordered to get the president solid proof of what the Chinese ship is ferrying." Covert-One agent Jon Smith is sent to rendezvous in Taiwan with another agent, who has acquired the ship's true manifest. But before Smith can get the document, the two agents are ambushed, the second agent is murdered, the proof destroyed, and Smith escapes with only his life, scant clues to the mystery behind the cargo ship, and a verbal message - the president's biological father is still alive, held prisoner by the Chinese for fifty years. As the Chinese cargo ship draws ever closer to its end port, Smith must race against the clock to uncover the truth about the ship and its cargo, a truth that probes the deepest secrets of the Chinese ruling party, the faction in Washington working to undermine the elected government, and the international cabal who is thrusting the world to the very brink of war.