The Matarese Circle
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The Matarese Circle (1979) is a novel by Robert Ludlum.
[edit] Plot
Brandon Alan Scofield, the man called Beowulf Agate, a ranking intelligence officer in America's clandestine services, is a veteran of twenty-two years; a lifetime of secrecy and violence. He has seen more of that world than he cares to remember. He is a tired man, but he remains the best in his field.
Vasili Vasilivich Taleniekov, the man called The Serpent, master strategist, KGB, the Soviet Union's most brilliant intelligence tactician, is both executioner and negotiator, hunter and quarry. He has spent twenty-five years in ruthless pursuit of Moscow's enemies. He, too, is tired and weary of the futility of the intelligence community, but there is no one better in all of Russia.
Scofield and Taleniekov, professionals to the core, are also deadly and hated enemies who have vowed to kill one another should they ever meet. Their motives: Taleniekov engineered the death of Scofield's wife; Scofield was responsible for the murder of Taleniekov's brother.
The deaths of their loved ones took place nearly a decade ago. Now, both men have aged and are at the end of their careers. The tensions over the years have taken their toll; both are mistrusted by their respective governments, both slated for termination, in terms of their jobs and otherwise to ensure their silence.
Nevertheless they have come upon one of the most frightening conspiracies of our time. A decades-old secret organization that has been financing terrorist groups around the world using massive multi-national corporations. An organization created in the early 1900s in Corsica by the brilliant yet mad Baron Guillaume de Matarese. No one really knows the true face or aim of The Matarese, only that it must be stopped.
And the only ones who can stop it are Brandon Scofield and Vasili Taleniekov, working together.
The story continues in The Matarese Countdown, as Scofield (much older) and a new agent from the CIA named Camron Pryce take on a new form of the Matarese. The novel progresses (if you want a synopsis, read it) and Scofield burns the Matarese out again. He remains alive at the end.
[edit] Real Life references
In an introduction to the novel, Ludlum writes that he based the conspiracy on rumors about the Trilateral Commission.
The "Shepherd Boy" assassin character is based on Juan March Ordinas.
[edit] Characters
- Scofield, Brandon - an intelligence officer who is Taleniekov's enemy but who ends up helping him in their efforts to find the truth
- Taleniekov, Vasili - the Russian KGB agent who stumbles upon the web of political intrigue and public deceit that revolves around an elite group known only as the 'Matarese.'
