Plot-wise, it's everything you want it to be. Characters are skillfully sketched with a nuance here, an inflection there; he does not belabor descriptions, another plus for me. All except for the girlfriend, who has no personality at all, is merely a breast-heaving accessory that Ambler can cuddle and sweat with after a long day of dodging bullets. In fact, I suspected she would betray him; then that she'll get killed; I'm still not sure what she's doing there.
Anyway, like i said, my first Ludlum; I wanted a fast reading no-brainer and this is just the ticket. Although i must say there have been 3 words that sent me to the dictionary (a plus in my mind) and there is some good talk about statistical probability and foreign policy and almost prophetic stuff about this being the "Chinese Century". So it's not all bullet-dodging.
EDIT: Now that I've finished, I was right about the girl, but I won't spoil it by saying how. It was still a good yarn. I plan to read more Ludlum.
It's good so far, but there's a lot of exposition.
