Resumo de The Tristan Betrayal

The story begins in 1991 in Moscow with a coup being planned in Soviet Union against Gorbachev by a cabal of communist hardliners. The world is on the verge of world war again if the nuclear buttons fall into the hands of the communists. And American ambassador Stephen Metcalfe is called upon again to change the course of history.

The story now takes a dive into the past to the middle of WWII in 1940. Metcalfe is an American spy in the guise of an Argentinean playboy in Nazi Occupied France. He is picked up by his boss here to go to Moscow on a mission ostensibly to instigate the defection of Nazi official who coincidentally is living with Metcalf?s former lover, the prima ballerina Svetlana Baranova. Metcalf finds out later that his actual mission is to break up the newly formed alliance between Stalin?s Russia and Nazi Germany by sending false information to the Nazis about Russia?s strength, and pitting them against each other. He overcomes numerous attempts on his life to successfully complete his assignment. His success proves significant in the defeat of Nazi Germany in WWII.

Now in 1991 he is called upon again to save the world from a possible WWIII or a nuclear war if the coup attempt against Gorbachev is successful and the cabal gains power in Soviet Russia. Stephen Metcalf holds the key - in the form of a secret ? to solving the immediate problem, a key whose roots go back to his earlier success in 1940 in Stalin?s Russia. He must use the secret to convince the Dirizhor, the Conductor - whose blessings are important for the success of the coup - to drop the coup attempt.

As the story unfolds we are treated to a thriller par excellence once again. It involves a love interest in the form of the Russian ballerina Svetlana Baranova; the protagonist Metcalf, who is trying to escape traitors who had his colleagues murdered; and the NKVD spies and the SD agents who are looking to kill Metcalf. He is caught in a pincer grip of emotions and guilt in using his only love Lana for his clandestine purposes and putting her in danger while at the same time not knowing whom to trust among his own people. He needs to and does take the heart wrenching decision to use and possibly betray his love in order to save the world from suffering the tyranny of Hitler and Stalin. His resourcefulness comes to his rescue in evading his enemies. He successfully completes his assignment at the cost of personal loss.

We enter Stephen Metcalf?s mind as he goes through some dangerous and heart wrenching moments. The narrative is as good as ever. The plot seems a bit stale and hackneyed but the treatment is what again grips the reader. There is some doubt as to whether this novel was written by Ludlum himself or by a ghost writer, as it was published two years after his death in 2001. However, the novel has been able to maintain the thrill to the end in the style of any Ludlum thriller.

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