

Ludlum’s creation and made him ageless, which conforms to the possibility of the Bourne films continuing. He refreshed Bourne by killing off characters who were central to Mr. “I wanted to preserve the essence of Bourne and his sense of honor,” Mr. “The Bourne Legacy” has sold 272,000 hardcover and paperback copies, Nielsen BookScan reported. Ludlum’s italicized style, although his pacing and plotting are eerily similar to Mr. He admired Bourne and believed that he understood what motivated him he agreed to a deal with the estate in which he had no obligation to copy Mr. Martin’s Press) came to him while showering. Lustbader that he write a Bourne novel, but he didn’t take the offer seriously until the plot for “The Bourne Legacy” (St. Lustbader’s.Įric Van Lustbader has written several books in the Jason Bourne series after Mr.

The title underscores the franchise and the hope that readers will buy a Ludlumesque book that he only inspired but which displays his name in letters twice as tall as Mr.

Lustbader’s newest novel bears the title “Robert Ludlum’s The Bourne Betrayal” in which the agency believes he has gone rogue by killing two of its own and orders him terminated. Two best sellers by the veteran thriller writer Eric Van Lustbader have lengthened the troubled double life of Jason Bourne, Ludlum’s C.I.A.-handled assassin who had amnesia when readers first met him and whose memories have returned in glimmers like the scent of a certain Scotch. There are others that will be finished, as suitable.” He insisted that there are no ghostwriters in a bunker with a laptop writing books in Mr. Morrison said, “sat around in the safe awaiting its turn. Ludlum, including last year’s “The Bancroft Strategy,” which sold 102,000 copies in hardcover, making it to the ninth spot on The New York Times best-seller list, according to Nielsen BookScan, which tracks about 70 percent of retail book sales. Morrison said he sought no credit) and editor (also unnamed) from unpolished manuscripts left behind by Mr. Three other books have been polished by an uncredited writer (Mr. A seventh, “The Arctic Event,” by James Cobb, the fifth writer in the series, is due in September. He oversaw the first three (two by Gayle Lynds and one by Philip Shelby) before he died, but three more have been published since. Ludlum created with the central character of Lt. Morris have executed an aggressive plan that has perpetuated the “Covert-One” series of paperback originals that Mr. It’s the characters that interest people.” “The Sherlock Holmes novels have been a business since ‘The Seven-Percent Solution,’ and some have been better than others. “I don’t think anyone objects as long as you maintain the quality of the book,” Mr. And instead of going off to find the new Ludlum, they figure they’ve got this formula and will continue to use it.” Publishers, like executives in other creative fields, want Nos. “Series and big-name authors have tended to work well. “Publishing does look to the past to see what will work in the future,” said Sara Nelson, the editor in chief of Publishers Weekly. The estate’s post-mortem publishing game plan is reminiscent of licensing and other deals for dead stars like Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe and Babe Ruth, and the film industry’s comfort with familiar franchises. “People expect something from a Robert Ludlum book, and if we can publish Ludlum books for the next 50 years and satisfy readers, we will,” said Jeffrey Weiner, the executor of Mr.
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Andrews, dead since 1986 but selling well thanks to novels in her name written by an uncredited author Ernest Hemingway, whose estates issued several books after his suicide and Tom Clancy and Clive Cussler (both quite alive) who diverted from their skin of solo thrillers to create series written in conjunction with, or solely by, others. His estate has borrowed from the examples of V.C. I’ve spent 30 years writing books and building an audience.’ ” He said, ‘I don’t want my name to disappear. “One day we were talking about what would happen when he was gone. “This goes back to 1990 or ’91 when Bob had quadruple bypass,” said Henry Morrison, the agent for Mr.
