THE FIFTH WITNESS

Robert Ludlums most famous character comes to life in the first in a series of books He has no past. And he may have no future. His memory is blank. He only knows that he was flushed out of the Mediterranean Sea, his body riddled with bullets. There are a few clues. A frame of microfilm surgically implanted beneath the flesh of his hip. Evidence that plastic surgery has alt Robert Ludlums most famous character comes to life in the first in a series of books He has no past. And he may have no future. His memory is blank. He only knows that he was flushed out of the Mediterranean Sea, his body riddled with bullets. There are a few clues. A frame of microfilm surgically implanted beneath the flesh of his hip. Evidence that plastic surgery has altered his face. Strange things that he says in his delirium — maybe code words. Initial: J.B. And a number on the film negative that leads to a Swiss bank account, a fortune of four million dollars, and, at last, a name: Jason Bourne. But now he is marked for death, caught in a maddening puzzle, racing for survival through the deep layers of his buried past into a bizarre world of murderous conspirators — led by Carlos, the worlds most dangerous assassin. And no one can help Jason Bourne but the woman who once wanted to escape him. ?Ludlum stuffs more surprises into his novels than any other six-pack of thriller writers combined.? ? The New York Times Some of Mr. Ludlums previous novels were so convoluted they should have been packaged with bags of bread crumbs to help readers keep track of the plot lines, Peter Andrews mused in the New York Times Book Review. But The Bourne Identity is a Ludlum story at its most severely plotted, and for me its most effective.