I picked up this book on my lastest visit to the Community Services Centre's book exchange library. The Bourne Supremacy is the second in the three book series which starts with The Bourne Identity and ends with The Bourne Ultimatum.

I had seen the film of The Bourne Identity, staring Matt Damon, and had watched the trailer for The Bourne Supremacy online. Apart from the title and some of the main characters the Supremacy book is totally different from the movie. Granted, I haven't seen the movie yet but it bears no relation to the story depicted in the trailer. Not having read The Bourne Identity I'm thinking that maybe the first film only covers part of the book, and the second film completes the story. Maybe someone could confirm this for me. Having said that, however, Supremacy is set in the days before the UK hand-over of Hong Kong to China, so a re-write would have been in order anyway.

To the book. Take one academic - David Webb - who used to be a hired assassin - Jason Bourne - who before that was a crazy mercenary - Delta - who was driven to this life when his wife and children were murdered. Welcome to the world of Jason Bourne! David/Jason/Delta is called back to action when his Canadian wife Marie (she's his German girlfriend in the movie) is kidnapped and held hostage by a powerful taipan in Hong Kong. What follows is an expertly written plot of political machinations on a terrifying scale. Political power-players from China - secret service ambassadors from the USA. One side bent on plunging the far-east into war in order to reclaim China from the Communist rulers, and the other side determined to do whatever is necessary to prevent it, even if that means ruining the lives of an academic and his wife living in Maine.

The research needed to take the reader on journeys through Hong Kong, Macau, and mainland China, and to make them convincing, is admirable. The story follows with twists and turns aplenty, and with surprises and shocks in equal measure. I only wish I had read the Bourne Identity first as there are regular references to things that happened in it. I really enjoyed this book and can recommend it to anyone who enjoys an action thriller, although I suggest you read the books in order. And although I have a stack of other books to read next, there's a copy of The Bourne Ultimatum somewhere in the middle!

There's a great quote at the end of the book where one of the US analysts talks about Jason's kind after having experienced Bourne's work first-hand.

"I was out of my element - my territory, as it were. These people do things the rest of us only dream about, or fantasize, or watch on a screen, disbelieving ever moment because it's so outrageously implausible."

...and therein lies the success of Robert Ludlum and his masterful creation, Jason Bourne.