The Matarese Circle
Robert Ludlum, 1979
★ 4.07 from 42.6k ratings on Goodreads
Two rival spies are forced into an uneasy alliance when a shadowy conspiracy turns both their agencies against them. A fast, globe-trotting spy story shadowed by dread and moral unease, with a cool, deliberate voice.
Feels like dread, tenderness and joy. About morality, time and memory.
Who it’s for
You may like it if you enjoy Cold War spy thrillers with rival agents, tangled conspiracies, and travel across several countries. The 1979 setting and some of its attitudes can feel dated, and the intricate plotting may ask you to keep track of many names and loyalties.
Why read it
It offers a tense, morally shaded look at loyalty and manipulation during the Cold War, with a plot that keeps pulling you through cities and secrets.
A page from the book
The invisible knot that ties gratitude to obedience.
But the major would never offer the slightest objection about anything where the general was concerned. “Mad Anthony” Blackburn had carried a broken young lieutenant out of a North Vietnamese prison camp, away from torture and starvation, and brought him through the jungles back to American lines. That was years ago; the lieutenant was a major now, the senior aide to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. What readers say
Readers found the book highly entertaining, praising its fast pace and globe-trotting action. Many were captivated by the intricate plots and the complex moral gray areas of the Cold War setting.
Robert Ludlum.Robert Ludlum served in the U.S. Marine Corps during World War II and later worked as an actor and theatrical producer before writing the Jason Bourne novels.
Books that feel like this
More by Robert Ludlum
The Bourne Identity
Robert Ludlum, 1980
Shot off a trawler into a Mediterranean storm, a man surfaces with no memory — and a set of skills and enemies he cannot explain.
The Parsifal Mosaic
Robert Ludlum, 1982
A CIA officer in Prague watches a woman he loves walk into a secret-police trap—and cannot decide whether she is a killer or a pawn.
The Aquitaine Progression
Robert Ludlum, 1981
In a world where corporate power intersects with global intrigue, a clever strategist finds that his most critical asset is the memory of a haunted past.
Where to get it
Some of these links earn us a small commission, at no cost to you. It keeps BookFeed free.
Questions readers ask
- Is The Matarese Circle for me?
- You may like it if you enjoy Cold War spy thrillers with rival agents, tangled conspiracies, and travel across several countries. The 1979 setting and some of its attitudes can feel dated, and the intricate plotting may ask you to keep track of many names and loyalties.
- What is The Matarese Circle like?
- A fast, globe-trotting spy story shadowed by dread and moral unease, with a cool, deliberate voice. Feels like dread, tenderness and joy. About morality, time and memory.
- What should I read after The Matarese Circle?
- If you liked The Matarese Circle, try Gray Mountain (John Grisham), Smiley's People (John le Carré) and Red Storm Rising (Tom Clancy).
A taste of the feed
The first rule of retirement, as preached by the people who never retire.
You remember the first rule of retirement, George? No moonlighting, no fooling with loose ends, no private enterprise, ever. You remember who preaches this rule, at Sarratt, in the corridors? George Smiley did. Quote, “When it’s over, it’s over. Pull down the shutters, go home,” unquote. We’re over, George. We’ve got no license. They don’t want us anymore.
Smiley's People · John le Carré
A city built on oil, lit by the fires of its own waste.
Central Control was a modern three-story building fittingly in the center of the complex. For at least five kilometers in all directions stretched the cracking towers, storage tanks, catalytic chambers, and above all the thousands of kilometers of large-diameter pipe which made Nizhnevartovsk one of the world’s largest refining complexes. The sky was lit at uneven intervals by waste-gas fires, and the air was foul with the stink of petroleum distillates: aviation kerosene, gasoline, diesel fuel, benzine, nitrogen tetroxide for intercontinental missiles, lubricating oils of various grades, and complex petrochemicals identified only by their alphanumeric prefixes.
Red Storm Rising · Tom Clancy
A handful of men can stop the government from falling off a monument.
All you’ve got to know is this: right now the government of the United States is sitting on top of the Washington Monument, right on the very point, tilting right and left and ready to fall off and break up on the pavement. There are just a handful of men that can prevent it. And you’re one of them.
Seven Days in May · Fletcher Knebel
Read pages from books like this, one at a time
Keep reading in the feed