The Chancellor Manuscript: A Novel

I opened this book in a summer’s weekend in 1978 and was unable to put it down. I had read Ludlum books before, in fact many of them most of the time, I could do so at my leisure.The Chancellor Manuscript was different. Quite different. I was not able to stop reading, I was captivated and, frankly, terrified. I read it straight through with all the lights and radio on in my apartment all night and well into the next day. I was scared for several days following, actually for sometime.What Ludlum wrote about, to me at the time was not fictional - it was reality. I had witnessed, lived through, the assassinations of JFK, Malcolm X, MLK, RFK. I no longer had any faith in the democracy that I had been taught and brought up in. When RFK was assassinated it affected our family for the rest of our lives. I believe, as a result of my experience, that those assassinations changed this country in significant ways at least in and my ongoing lifetime.The rich and powerful today, as well as those who passionately feel that think they know what is good for us, remain strong and are greater in number; they are more prevalent, present and live frighteningly amongst us, over fifty years later, more so than the very same dynamic which did the damage so many years ago.Recently, I decided to read this book for the second time. I felt enough time had passed. Truthfully, I did not know if it would terrify me today, so I was quietly careful. It kept my attention as it had before, however, I was able to stretch the enjoyment, the profoundness of Ludlum’s wonderful writing over a few days even though I read in silence, however, I left the nightlights on.

What a super story by Robert Ludlum. His penchant for storytelling was excellent because he took a fictional story about J Edgar Hoover and a real place in North Korea (Chasong) and then used the Korean War to give a spelling binding, riveting story. This reader finished it in only two sittings and was blown away by all the details and all the twists and turns in it. The story starts out with Peter Chancellor as a graduate student who has just had his thesis rejected by his examiners. He is disconsolate and doesn't know what to do next.But then, Ludlum put the reader into a V8 thereafter and tears down the freeway where the reader had to hang on for dear life. It had car chases (the horrible face behind the wheel of the silver Mark IV Continental will never be forgotten); car accidents (poor Peter Chancellor); shoot outs, trusted people who, as we were to find out, weren't so trustworthy and people who went by multiple names. Also, what was the connection in the story to General MacAndrew and his deranged wife. What did the Korean War (Chasong) have to do with anything? And what was Inver Brass? There was racism, genocide and a terrible betrayal that was brutally sad. 5 Stars.

This Ludlum book, at least for me is typical of the whole spy novel genre... Book starts off well, then gets complicated, then many more characters are introduced so that the book becomes hard to follow, and then the thing ends up as one big chase scene wth an ending that is somewhat implausible. Usually I stop about half way through books like this and just sh&tcan it but I kept reading this as I liked the two main characters.Also, this book has got to be the WORST Kindle conversion ever, with mistakes on almost every page. Hundreds of periods left out, garbage characters inserted, and meaningless words in a sentence whcih require you to go back and read the sentence 2-3 times to figure out what Ludlum is trying to say. I also got pretty tired of reading "Liver Brass" instead of "Inver Brass". Shocking to see that after the Kindle conversion this book was never proofed.

I am hooked on Robert Ludlum's books. I gave up romance after I turned 20, moved on to murder mysteries (Ellery Queen genre), but I never experienced an author that could keep me awake until 3:00 in the morning, not only with this book--but with all of them!I have read The Chancellor Manuscripts, all three of the series of the Bourne books, and just finished the Holcroft Covenant, which teases and hints at a sequel in the last few pages, and I'm crossing my fingers there is one (have to still check out his list of books).The twist, as expected in any Ludlum novel, occurs about half-way through the book, from a direction the reader would never guess, and involves a woman (the hero always has to get his gal in Ludlum's novels!), and this right after he experiences something that forces him to run for his life, hide from those he loves, and/or forces him to cut his communications from any normal life that the hero would normally use if this was real life.While Ludlum's books smack of a 'formula,' I'm hooked--you know that something unusual is going to happen to the main character, he's going to be forced to give up his normal life to go out and 'save the world,' he'll use life-long aquaintances for help throughout the book (although about 85% end up in a morgue by the end of the story), there's lots of shooting of the bad guys, a damsel in distress who will initially hate or distrust the main character, then fall in love with him, and after which everybody shoots at each other and more bad and good guys die, then the hero either ends up being 'savior' of the world, or he ends up chopped to pieces (ouch), but survives to take on the bad guys again.Don't try this plot at home--only Ludlum can add enough realistic and believable imagery to convince you of the reality of the story with his details. I was surprised that this is the only book of Ludlum's so far to have the scenery completely fall within the continental USA versus his European settings for all his other books. While the details are pretty amibiguous in this book, they are realistic enough to give you a feel for the location (versus his precise details and descriptions of European sites in his other novels).If you haven't tried a Ludlum novel, pick one up--any one, and enjoy an espionage thriller that only a master like Ludlum can write.

Robert Ludlum is always a good read. I had to keep my wits about me to keep up with the plot. I actually had the paperback version but when I got to page 294 the following 100 pages were a repeat of a section earlier in the book. So there was nothing for it but to download to my Kindle to enable me to finish it. Needless to say the paperback version found its way into the recycling bin.You won’t be disappointed.

This was my first Ludlum novel. Unfortunately, towards the end, I remember not really caring too much about the outcome.Too many red herrings, too many names and pseudonyms. Of the five or so protagonists, as far as I was concerned, any of them could have been the culprit/mastermind, I just didn't care.Nelson Demille or Lee Child could have delivered a more dynamic account of this story.But, I am not put off Mr Ludlum, I shall give him another go.

Didn’t get far into this drivel.

This book was for a friend she loved it. although she loves Robert Lublum books. A bit of a book worm

Cracking good read....typical early Ludlum, fast moving with twist and turns and always a happy ending. Well recommended