Robert Ludlum's (TM) The Arctic Event (Covert-One series)

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I was very excited when I discovered a new Covert One book was on the market, but after reading The Artic Event, I was left not only disappointed but disgusted. It is apparent that this so called author, James B. Cobb, had never bother to read any of the previous novels before writing his jibberish. It is appauling to me that someone had the audacity to let this book be published with Robert Ludlum's name on it. Not only did this author change the intergrity of the charcters, but their dynamics. As for the plot-lame, action-boring, any dime store novel would have or could have done better. I have always enjoyed the Cover One series and hope that in the future Mr. Cobb's name no longer is on the cover. I long for future books that bring back the spirit of Covert One and make Robert Ludlum proud.

An academic institution discovers a crashed bomber in the ice on Wednesday Island in the arctic. An investigation uncovers some startling revelations. The plane belongs to the Russians and carries a payload of 2000 lbs. of a biological agent that has the potential to wipe out the equivalent of the east coast of the United States. A team is assembled from the "club." There is Jon Smith MD, Randi Russell, a pilot and younger sister of Dr. Sophia Russell-Dr. Smith's deceased fiancee, Professor Valentina Metrace,an attractive weapons expert with a hidden past and Major Gregori Smyslov.
This team as well as teams of hostiles converge on the remote arctic island in competition for the powerful payload. The Russians have a secret to hide on the plane, and this secret adds to the dangers and suspense.
The book is well written and in a style suitable to a military thriller. There is plenty of action to carry the plot along and the interpersonal relationships of the team provide extra intrigue and interest. The author has a good command of military technology such as guns and planes, and this adds to the feeling of authenticity.
The one drawback concerns a lack of plausibility in one area. For such a powerful payload on this downed plane in the Arctic, it seems very unlikely to me that the government would limit itself to just the four people mentioned to secure it. The government has vastly greater resources. If the greater response were given, however, much of the plot and suspense would crumble. As long as one goes along with this premise of just four people then the book delivers suspense, intrigue and the interplay of some interesting personalities.The Griffon Trilogy

Reviewed by Paige Lovitt for Reader Views (9/07)

"The Artic Event" is part of the Covert One Series that was created by Robert Ludlum. This novel, written by James H. Cobb, is a fast-paced, suspense-filled, espionage thriller. It takes place on a frozen island in the Canadian Artic. The plot actually begins over fifty years ago when a Soviet bomber mysteriously crash lands on the island. It was carrying a biological weapon that consisted of four thousand pounds of anthrax. For some reason, Russia never attempted to rescue the crew or the plane and its cargo. The reason that the plane had been in the area seems very suspicious, especially since it was during the Cold War. The Russian's claim it to have been on a training mission gone awry.

The Covert One team is sent to the island to see that the anthrax is contained and to investigate what really happened. When they arrive, they discover that not only are the Russians trying to cover something up, but another group is trying to gain control of the anthrax. The team's lives are in danger. Rushing against time with two groups out to kill them, and incredibly cold weather, they have to rely on their wits and their special training to survive and to save thousands of lives.

I was immediately drawn into the novel. It was very fast-paced all the way through. I had goose bumps the whole time I was reading it. Being that it is about 110 degrees where I live, Cobb was really able to make me feel like I was on that frozen island. The characters are very well-developed and I was thrilled that there were two, not just one, women on the team. Cobb takes you into their minds and lets you know how they think and how they have to rely on their inner strength and disciplined training to make it through alive. The leader of the team, Lieutenant Colonel Jon Smith, has an incredible sense of integrity that hugely factors into the story.

"The Arctic Event" is perfect for fans of espionage thrillers. Both men and women will find themselves immediately hooked and unable to put the book down. Ludlum fans will not be disappointed in the seventh novel of this series. If you have not read any of James H. Cobb's novels before, you will be thrilled to discover him.

Book received free of charge.

A 1950s-era Soviet bomber is found by a scientific research team, on a uninhabited frozen island in Arctic Canada. The Russians are eager to investigate the contents of the plane, with the help of the U.S. government. Enter Jon Smith, U.S army medical doctor, and member of Covert-One, CIA agent, Randi Russell, and history professer Valentina Metrace, who along with Russian Air Force Major, Gregori Smyslov, are sent to secure the site.

However, their problem's start as soon as the opereation gets off the ground, as other parties are interested in the contents of the old bomber, and there appears to be a traitor within the scientific research group.

Although the story of a group being stranded on the Arctic ice, with a traitor in the ranks has done been done many times before, such as in Alastair McClean's, Ice Station Zebra, and Dean Koontz's, Icebound, I still found this story a highly enjoyable and exiciting read.

The characterisation is very good, and the writing is vivid. At times I almost felt as if I was on that windswept desolate island myself! The pace is relentless for the most part, as you wonder who will get to the plane first, and who will get off the island in one piece. Four stars, at least.

There is only one thing that prevents ROBERT LUDLUM'S THE ARCTIC EVENT from being perfect: the title. I'm not referring to the "Robert Ludlum's" portion, either; it's "The Arctic Event" part that is as exciting as one hand clapping. It conjures up the vision of a penguin giving birth. However, this latest installment of the Covert-One series, written by James H. Cobb, is otherwise a flawless locomotive ride from front to back --- a true thriller from beginning to end.

Once you get past the title, the book kicks off in grand fashion, with a team of researchers in the Arctic wilderness discovering the wreckage of an aircraft. With some embarrassment, the Russian government admits that the plane is one of theirs and that it disappeared with its crew more than a half-century ago carrying a deadly two-ton payload of anthrax. This is precisely the type of mission for which Covert-One was designed --- one requiring swiftness, effectiveness and, above all, secrecy --- so that the President of the United States dispatches a Covert-One team led by Colonel Jon Smith to the site.

Two other entities are at play, however. One is a ruthless international arms dealer who is ready for retirement and for whom the anthrax will provide the means for a comfortable pension. The other is a group of Russians bent on keeping the even deadlier secret involving the downed plane from being discovered. What is worse for Covert-One is that there is a traitor among them, making an already dangerous situation even deadlier as Covert-One is caught between two teams of highly trained adversaries and the weather, which proves to be the deadliest enemy of all.

Cobb is a marvel. He sets several clocks ticking along within his storyline so that just as one problem is resolved --- or not --- another two or three rear their dangerous, ugly heads. And while the plot would drive the story along quite nicely, the author also introduces a new player to the series: Valentina Metrace, an historian whose knowledge of weaponry is matched and even exceeded by her ability to use same. Intelligent, deadly and extremely attractive, who can possibly resist her? Not this reader, that's for sure. Hopefully she will appear in future volumes, as well as Cobb, who brings new life to an already lively series.

--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

The photograph taken on remote Wednesday Island in the Canadian Arctic was a simple innocent display of the harshness of the wintry environs. However, incidentally the photo includes the wreckage of a WW II Russian bomber plane that shakes up the leaders of Russia and consequently the western governments. The Russians believe the lost plane that vanished five decades ago contained weapon-graded anthrax.

No one knows what weathering will have done to the plane or the sealed cargo. Covert One, consisting of the best operatives from several nations, is sent in to learn the status. US Army physician Lieutenant Colonel Jon Smith, CIA Agent Randi Russell and Russian history professor Valentina (Val) Metrace are the agents assigned to investigate. Also the Russians add Major Gregori Smyslov to the team with a special agenda that if a certain secret deadlier than anthrax is uncovered, he is to kill the Covert One team. No one on this sanctioned squad is aware that notorious armed dealers have sent cold blooded mercenaries to Wednesday Island to pick up the anthrax for resale value.

This is an exciting tribute to Robert Ludlum's Covert One team as THE ARCTIC EVENTS is an entertaining exciting thriller. The Covert Team dies not trust the newest Russian assigned to them and has doubts about the loyalty of the professor; the Russians feels the same way about the Americans as they wonder what the Yanks will do with the cargo if found in containers that are movable. Although the arms dealing mercenaries add suspense, they seem more like intruders to a tense situation between teammates distrusting one another made tauter by adverse brutal weather and the other weapon.

Harriet Klausner

I really liked this book. It has all the qualities of a good Robert Ludlum - action, international intrigue, and an exotic locale. This author apparently has real experience with the weapons and locations he writes about, given the detail and specificity that he employs. It's not perfect (I can't believe the Canadians were not more a part of the international intrigue!), and I would give this a 4.6 if I could - but I would definitely buy another novel by this author, especially if he teamed up again with the Robert Ludlum company.

I just wanted to edit to agree with the previous comment about the vivid characterization and vivid descriptions.

I have read Robert Ludlum's books about Covert One previously and the author, James H. Cobb has taken the characters that Ludlum created and wrote a very good story containing those characters. Lieutenant Colonel Jon Smith is a member of Covert One, a secret spy agency made up of top spooks from various agencies. They work together as teams when and where needed.

A random photo taken in the wilds of the Canadian Arctic contained the image of an airplane, vintage WW II and apparently Russian. This image started a hastily arranged covert operation to seek out this airplane that had disappeared with its crew some fifty-years ago. The Russians and the United States government joined forces to find this wreckage and seek out what had happened to cause this crash and what cargo was aboard. Smith, a medical doctor with the US army is teamed with an old acquaintance, Randi Russell, a CIA operative, and Valentina (Val) Metrace, Professor of History, to become the Covert One team to go and investigate the wreckage.

Major Gregori Smyslov was assigned by the Russian government to join with Jon Smith and his team. The cargo in the plane was sealed containers of Anthrax that no one knew the stability of it or what condition the plane was in after fifty-years. Also there was something very secret and urgent that the Russians had to find first and destroy. Major Smyslov was sworn to secrecy to the point of having orders to kill anyone that found this "secret" also, even if it was the Americans. The level of trust between the Covert One team and the Russian major was non-existent, at least to begin with. Unknown to any of this investigative team was that a group of rogue armament dealers were in search of the anthrax and would kill anyone that got in their way.

The above circumstances of trust or lack of it between the United States and Russian governments was always there as this mission got underway. The brutal weather conditions in that area of the world was not people friendly. They never knew when a storm would come up and stop any progress while trapping the groups where they were until the storm subsided. The only way to reach the area was by helicopter, airplane, or ice-cutting ships that sometimes could cut through to reach Wednesday Island, where all the activity occurred.

There were many mental and physical battles occurring making the reader eager to keep reading this fast paced story with lots of action. The struggle became a mental game for those involved. As you read you may think that some of the action is a bit predictable but the way it played out made your predictions waver and change as you read. The breakdown of communications becomes a huge part of the story. Knowing there was a support ship with helicopter crews and soldiers off the coast was comforting but not having communications at many times with them made things terrible. The land communications also were a struggle partly because of weather and partly because of sabotage.

That level of trust still wavered between the Russian and Covert One but at times that trust had to be strong, with the circumstances and the weather, continually presenting such a fierce enemy. Lots of strategic planning sometimes worked out but many times it backfired requiring the return to another plan, and that new plan had to be followed through at once.
This is a very good read. As I finished "The Arctic Event" I couldn't help but think that the author had a great platform for a series containing some of the same characters in the book. I hope this team of writers continues to give us more interesting and exciting reading.

For older readers, this reads like an Alistair MacLean book. Specifically Ice Station Zebra or Bear Island. Mission to the Arctic Circle, solar flares make communications spotty, running around the ice flows, etc.

While the book is fairly predictable, it is very entertaining. James H. Cobb does his usual great job of character development with the main protagonist (Jon Smith) and some of the lesser characters. The description of the main setting is done quite well, also.

I had pretty much given up reading the Covert One series until this book was released. I have read all of Mr. Cobb's other works and was curious how he would handle characters developed by other authors. He did it very well.

It is pretty easy for me to recommend this novel to any action/adventure fans. Buy it for a great winter read during a snow/rain storm.

The Covert-One novels are a rather poor series branded under the name of Robert Ludlum. To date they have been surprisingly poor with nothing to remind us of the best elements of Ludlum's writing. But this one is different, James Cobb (a good writer in his own right) has delivered an exciting thriller that actually...works.

An elderly Soviet bomber is discovered on a desolate lump of ice in the Canadian Arctic. It's cargo is known to a select few and contains a real threat to future world peace. As the Covert-One team head out to the Arctic, the Russians also send a secret Spetsnaz team and a rather nasty bunch of arms dealers also sense an opportunity....

This reminded me of both Ice Station Zebra and Matthew Reilly's excellent Ice Station (written before Reilly's writing went downhill) and it is a tight and well written thriller. The limited environment works and means there is more focus on plot and characters then the previous books which seemed to default to random and tedious car chases and shoot outs. Yep, it has one or two minor flaws but generally this is far better than I expected and the first Covert One novel I have enjoyed.

Right off the bat let me say I thouroughly enjoyed the book, that question does not even enter the equation here. I figured I would when I saw the dedication to Donald Hamilton, author of the "real" Matt Helm. Being a fan of the Helm novels since I was about 16, and also a fan of Covert One, I figured I was in for a good one. So why the torn feelings?

This book, while highly enjoyable, seems to be moving more in the direction the previous book, Moscow Vector, started, that is the action is starting to take precedence over the thriller. Both Jon Smith, the hero, and Covert One itself are moving more towards the stereotypical action adventure norms. The book opens with Dr Smith taking an Army training course in combat situations and it continues with more openness about his working in the intelligence field. Dr Smith, once portrayed as Scientist who worked as agent on occasion, is now becoming full time agent, his science and medical background becoming more mention than critical to the plot. In the same sense Covert One, an agency that existed in the shadows, that the rest of the community hardly even suspected let alone knowing existed, is all of a sudden making demands of major government agencies such as DOD and CIA with presidential backing. How long can an organization remain secret in such circumstances? The Covert One premise seems to be veering off in a new, more standardized action spy novel, direction.

OTOH, while the direction the series seems to be going in gives me pause the addition of James Cobb to the list of Covert One authors does not. By his dedication one can see that Mr Cobb was a fan of the Matt Helm novels and their influence tells, especially in the character of Valentina Metrace, a woman whose amoral attitude toward violence, weapons and sex would fit perfectly well within the pages of a Matt Helm novel. A nice addition to Covert One that I hope to see built upon. The introduction of Prof Metrace also throws the premise into another U turn. While there were problems in the previous books between Jon Smith and Randi Russell, CIA agent and almost sister-in-law of Jon Smith, due to the death of both her fiance and her sister, both of which had the involvment of Dr Smith, and due to their crossing paths in the line of work, in which Jon had complete knowledge of Randi's role but she was totally in the dark about his, there was still a hint of sexual tension that was built upon in each succeeding book. Now all of a sudden Val has moved in to the territory and though Randi seems to show a bit of jealousy early on by the end it's like all that tension that was hinted at in the other books no longer existed. This, in addition to the possibility of adding Russell to the Covert One lineup makes one wonder. Is all the tension between Smith and Russell going to vanish while Metrov moves in? Will Russell and Metrov start have a bit of tension between themselves over Dr Smith. Only time will tell.

In addition to her character the description and use of personalized, and fairly non standard, weapons also shows the Donald Hamilton influence. While again, as it did in Moscow Vector, the action supplants the thriller in carrying the plot line it is done a lot better. Though the solving of the mystery is not key here the suspense is carried a lot better in the situations the team faces rather than the innumberable traps that Jon Smith had to escape in the last novel, the situations being a lot more varied and plausible. Having Professor Metrace throw a knife into a teammate's arm as a way of guaranteeing he hung on to the damn thing when faced with a life and death situation was a nice touch.

So, though I am not sure I like the direction the Covert One series is starting to take I say this novel is still a very enjoyable read and I recommend it to anyone who is a fan of the action thriller.

The photograph taken on remote Wednesday Island in the Canadian Arctic was a simple innocent display of the harshness of the wintry environs. However, incidentally the photo includes the wreckage of a WW II Russian bomber plane that shakes up the leaders of Russia and consequently the western governments. The Russians believe the lost plane that vanished five decades ago contained weapon-graded anthrax.

No one knows what weathering will have done to the plane or the sealed cargo. Covert One, consisting of the best operatives from several nations, is sent in to learn the status. US Army physician Lieutenant Colonel Jon Smith, CIA Agent Randi Russell and Russian history professor Valentina (Val) Metrace are the agents assigned to investigate. Also the Russians add Major Gregori Smyslov to the team with a special agenda that if a certain secret deadlier than anthrax is uncovered, he is to kill the Covert One team. No one on this sanctioned squad is aware that notorious armed dealers have sent cold blooded mercenaries to Wednesday Island to pick up the anthrax for resale value.

This is an exciting tribute to Robert Ludlum's Covert One team as THE ARCTIC EVENTS is an entertaining exciting thriller. The Covert Team dies not trust the newest Russian assigned to them and has doubts about the loyalty of the professor; the Russians feels the same way about the Americans as they wonder what the Yanks will do with the cargo if found in containers that are movable. Although the arms dealing mercenaries add suspense, they seem more like intruders to a tense situation between teammates distrusting one another made tauter by adverse brutal weather and the other weapon.

Harriet Klausner

I really liked this book. It has all the qualities of a good Robert Ludlum - action, international intrigue, and an exotic locale. This author apparently has real experience with the weapons and locations he writes about, given the detail and specificity that he employs. It's not perfect (I can't believe the Canadians were not more a part of the international intrigue!), and I would give this a 4.6 if I could - but I would definitely buy another novel by this author, especially if he teamed up again with the Robert Ludlum company.

I just wanted to edit to agree with the previous comment about the vivid characterization and vivid descriptions.

I have read Robert Ludlum's books about Covert One previously and the author, James H. Cobb has taken the characters that Ludlum created and wrote a very good story containing those characters. Lieutenant Colonel Jon Smith is a member of Covert One, a secret spy agency made up of top spooks from various agencies. They work together as teams when and where needed.

A random photo taken in the wilds of the Canadian Arctic contained the image of an airplane, vintage WW II and apparently Russian. This image started a hastily arranged covert operation to seek out this airplane that had disappeared with its crew some fifty-years ago. The Russians and the United States government joined forces to find this wreckage and seek out what had happened to cause this crash and what cargo was aboard. Smith, a medical doctor with the US army is teamed with an old acquaintance, Randi Russell, a CIA operative, and Valentina (Val) Metrace, Professor of History, to become the Covert One team to go and investigate the wreckage.

Major Gregori Smyslov was assigned by the Russian government to join with Jon Smith and his team. The cargo in the plane was sealed containers of Anthrax that no one knew the stability of it or what condition the plane was in after fifty-years. Also there was something very secret and urgent that the Russians had to find first and destroy. Major Smyslov was sworn to secrecy to the point of having orders to kill anyone that found this "secret" also, even if it was the Americans. The level of trust between the Covert One team and the Russian major was non-existent, at least to begin with. Unknown to any of this investigative team was that a group of rogue armament dealers were in search of the anthrax and would kill anyone that got in their way.

The above circumstances of trust or lack of it between the United States and Russian governments was always there as this mission got underway. The brutal weather conditions in that area of the world was not people friendly. They never knew when a storm would come up and stop any progress while trapping the groups where they were until the storm subsided. The only way to reach the area was by helicopter, airplane, or ice-cutting ships that sometimes could cut through to reach Wednesday Island, where all the activity occurred.

There were many mental and physical battles occurring making the reader eager to keep reading this fast paced story with lots of action. The struggle became a mental game for those involved. As you read you may think that some of the action is a bit predictable but the way it played out made your predictions waver and change as you read. The breakdown of communications becomes a huge part of the story. Knowing there was a support ship with helicopter crews and soldiers off the coast was comforting but not having communications at many times with them made things terrible. The land communications also were a struggle partly because of weather and partly because of sabotage.

That level of trust still wavered between the Russian and Covert One but at times that trust had to be strong, with the circumstances and the weather, continually presenting such a fierce enemy. Lots of strategic planning sometimes worked out but many times it backfired requiring the return to another plan, and that new plan had to be followed through at once.
This is a very good read. As I finished "The Arctic Event" I couldn't help but think that the author had a great platform for a series containing some of the same characters in the book. I hope this team of writers continues to give us more interesting and exciting reading.

For older readers, this reads like an Alistair MacLean book. Specifically Ice Station Zebra or Bear Island. Mission to the Arctic Circle, solar flares make communications spotty, running around the ice flows, etc.

While the book is fairly predictable, it is very entertaining. James H. Cobb does his usual great job of character development with the main protagonist (Jon Smith) and some of the lesser characters. The description of the main setting is done quite well, also.

I had pretty much given up reading the Covert One series until this book was released. I have read all of Mr. Cobb's other works and was curious how he would handle characters developed by other authors. He did it very well.

It is pretty easy for me to recommend this novel to any action/adventure fans. Buy it for a great winter read during a snow/rain storm.

The Covert-One novels are a rather poor series branded under the name of Robert Ludlum. To date they have been surprisingly poor with nothing to remind us of the best elements of Ludlum's writing. But this one is different, James Cobb (a good writer in his own right) has delivered an exciting thriller that actually...works.

An elderly Soviet bomber is discovered on a desolate lump of ice in the Canadian Arctic. It's cargo is known to a select few and contains a real threat to future world peace. As the Covert-One team head out to the Arctic, the Russians also send a secret Spetsnaz team and a rather nasty bunch of arms dealers also sense an opportunity....

This reminded me of both Ice Station Zebra and Matthew Reilly's excellent Ice Station (written before Reilly's writing went downhill) and it is a tight and well written thriller. The limited environment works and means there is more focus on plot and characters then the previous books which seemed to default to random and tedious car chases and shoot outs. Yep, it has one or two minor flaws but generally this is far better than I expected and the first Covert One novel I have enjoyed.

Right off the bat let me say I thouroughly enjoyed the book, that question does not even enter the equation here. I figured I would when I saw the dedication to Donald Hamilton, author of the "real" Matt Helm. Being a fan of the Helm novels since I was about 16, and also a fan of Covert One, I figured I was in for a good one. So why the torn feelings?

This book, while highly enjoyable, seems to be moving more in the direction the previous book, Moscow Vector, started, that is the action is starting to take precedence over the thriller. Both Jon Smith, the hero, and Covert One itself are moving more towards the stereotypical action adventure norms. The book opens with Dr Smith taking an Army training course in combat situations and it continues with more openness about his working in the intelligence field. Dr Smith, once portrayed as Scientist who worked as agent on occasion, is now becoming full time agent, his science and medical background becoming more mention than critical to the plot. In the same sense Covert One, an agency that existed in the shadows, that the rest of the community hardly even suspected let alone knowing existed, is all of a sudden making demands of major government agencies such as DOD and CIA with presidential backing. How long can an organization remain secret in such circumstances? The Covert One premise seems to be veering off in a new, more standardized action spy novel, direction.

OTOH, while the direction the series seems to be going in gives me pause the addition of James Cobb to the list of Covert One authors does not. By his dedication one can see that Mr Cobb was a fan of the Matt Helm novels and their influence tells, especially in the character of Valentina Metrace, a woman whose amoral attitude toward violence, weapons and sex would fit perfectly well within the pages of a Matt Helm novel. A nice addition to Covert One that I hope to see built upon. The introduction of Prof Metrace also throws the premise into another U turn. While there were problems in the previous books between Jon Smith and Randi Russell, CIA agent and almost sister-in-law of Jon Smith, due to the death of both her fiance and her sister, both of which had the involvment of Dr Smith, and due to their crossing paths in the line of work, in which Jon had complete knowledge of Randi's role but she was totally in the dark about his, there was still a hint of sexual tension that was built upon in each succeeding book. Now all of a sudden Val has moved in to the territory and though Randi seems to show a bit of jealousy early on by the end it's like all that tension that was hinted at in the other books no longer existed. This, in addition to the possibility of adding Russell to the Covert One lineup makes one wonder. Is all the tension between Smith and Russell going to vanish while Metrov moves in? Will Russell and Metrov start have a bit of tension between themselves over Dr Smith. Only time will tell.

In addition to her character the description and use of personalized, and fairly non standard, weapons also shows the Donald Hamilton influence. While again, as it did in Moscow Vector, the action supplants the thriller in carrying the plot line it is done a lot better. Though the solving of the mystery is not key here the suspense is carried a lot better in the situations the team faces rather than the innumberable traps that Jon Smith had to escape in the last novel, the situations being a lot more varied and plausible. Having Professor Metrace throw a knife into a teammate's arm as a way of guaranteeing he hung on to the damn thing when faced with a life and death situation was a nice touch.

So, though I am not sure I like the direction the Covert One series is starting to take I say this novel is still a very enjoyable read and I recommend it to anyone who is a fan of the action thriller.

The author does a good job of balancing reality and story to give a good mix. I'm a person that enjoys a high adventure, but they are rarely accompanied by someone that can take on an army and not get hurt. To me, this makes the characters more believable, and yet the story is still a story and enjoyable. I was able to put it down at points, but overall, it kept me pretty interested in seeing what was on the next page.

This was a compelling novel of international intrigue, military and intell operations from the perspective of a Army Col, Medical Dr, and his Black Ops associates. I found it to be believable, nicely paced, w/o much wasted ink. Ludlum knows how to pick his Co-autors to weave a tale that will keep you fascinated and wondering, right up to the end, This character series is VG read, IMHO. Recommend it for adults, over 25. NOT suitable for impressionable types.

An interesting scenario in which there’s a three way race between the US, Russia and a well-organized arms dealer to seize a cold war Russian bomber loaded with anthrax before the other two get to it.

It maintains an exhilarating pace with lively characters, especially the two portrayed as the gorgeous, strong willed woman.

Robert Ludlum's The Arctic Event (Covert-One) I have always enjoyed reading Clive Cussler's Dirk Pitt and Stephen Coonts' Jake Grafton novels; and now I add Robert Ludlum's Dr. Jon Smith to my list of favorite characters. The Arctic Event is a well written novel, full of suspense and unusual plot twists. All the primary characters are professional operatives who realistically approach their assignments. I have read all of the Covert One novels and this is by far my favorite. James Cobb seems to have captured the true essence of Dr. Jon Smith in his first Covert One novel. I look forward to his next effort.

One of the most enjoyable and exciting of the "Covert One" series to date. An enthusiastic welcome to Valentina Matrice and to the likelehood of meeting Randi Russell once again in future adventures. Along with Jon Smith, they make one hell of a fine, and when necessary, deadly team! The story was exceptionally well told of fictional events that, regrettably, are not beyond the realm of possibility. Also, expect that possibly we might meet Major Gregori Smyslov in future adventures. That too would add to the diversity of a superb team of professionals committed to "protect and defend."

Ok. New author, same result. A wonderfully entertaining romp in the Arctic.

The old characters make it easy to get into the book, and the new ones provide the extra ingredients in a great recipe of intrigue, excitement, and action.

Newcomers to the Covert-One series won't be disappointed, and won't feel like they've missed too much to follow along.

This is a great book for a long flight, or your vacation to someplace quiet. You really won't want to put it down.

Jon Smith more than measures up to the Ludlum hero tradition -- without some of the usual tragic weaknesses they were burdened with.

As for the hero riding off into the sunset with the girl... well, let's just say I'm sure there will be several more Covert-One books to come.

Cheers!

If you like "24" and action novels, and nothing too high brow then this is for you. Most of the other reviewers have detailed the story so I will not repeat it. Non stop action, good characters, good plot and a very quick read. Would make for a good episode of "24" set in the Artic. Makes for good reading on a long plane ride.

I was dubious about these "Ludlum" novels written by others based on his ideas, but I have to admit this was excellently written. Interesting characters, good story, gripping action sequences. Will definitely recommend.

Fast shipping and a fair price from the store.com. The plot of this book could have been based on a real life event. With the addition of a new character in this drama it will be interesting to see where the next book goes with this partnership.

Cobb does a nice job developing Jon Smith's character, building on previous Covert One texts. The book entertains, but it was a little too over the top, gratuitous violence and no hook to keep us interested in what happens to Jon in the next book.....