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The Matarese Circle
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Plot Summary of The Matarese Circle
"Brandon Schofield, a washed-out CIA field agent, must join forces with Vasili Taleniekov, the former KGB director who murdered Schofield's wife some time back, to probe and destroy from within a Corsican brotherhood known as the Matarese, who are intent on world domination through corruption and anarchy. As the pair take on the Matarese, will personal hatreds rule the day?"
Nick Warren, Resident Scholar



Review Analysis of The Matarese Circle
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot

Composition of Book
descript. of violence and chases - 20%
Planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 40%
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 20%
How society works & physical descript. (people, objects, places) - 20%




Tone of story - Dry-cynical
Time/era of story: - 1980's-1999
Spying/Terrorism Thriller Yes
Kid or adult book? - Adult or Young Adult Book
Who's the terrorist enemy here? - generic terrorists

Main Character
Gender - Male
Profession/status: - spy
Age: - 20's-30's
Eccentric/Mental: Yes
Eccentric: - obsessed - emotionally unstable
Is this an ordinary person caught up in events? Yes
How much violence does he/she use? - just the right amount
Sense of humor - Cynical sense of humor
Intelligence - Smarter than most other characters
Physique - druggie/wino disease

Main Adversary
Identity: - an organization
Age: - long-lived adults
Profession/status: - mastermind
Eccentric: Yes - obsessed - deluded - wild - eccentric
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in: - an above average amount
Motive of antagonist - power
The antagonists are: - foreign organized crime

Setting
United States Yes
The US: - Northeast
Europe Yes
European country: - England/UK - France - Italy - Russia
Island? Yes
Island: - stranded - on vacation
City? Yes
City: - Dirty, dangerous (like New York) - dangerous - Washington D.C.
Misc setting - fancy mansion

Style
Part of a series? Yes
Person - rotating 1st
Accounts of torture and death? - moderately detailed references to deaths
How many deaths? - 8 or more
Sex Yes
What kind of sex: - vague references - descript of kissing
Unusual forms of death - asphyxiation - poisoning - dropped from large heights - run over - flamed - drowned - perforation--bullets - perforation--swords/knives - blunt clubbing (like seals) - exploded into bits
Unusual form of death? Yes
Amount of dialog - roughly even amounts of descript and dialog
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Robert Ludlum Resident Scholar Profiles

TOP SCHOLAR:
  
Nick Warren  

SCHOLARS:
Walid Khalid  Yajnavalka Banerjee  Ben Noonan  Daniel Gorman  Andrei Kayaka  Matt Taylor  Dementer  Kailash Shankar  Andrew Chaney  


Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s).
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