Robert Ludlum's Bourne series is the bar to which other suspense/ thrillers aspire. So, when you put Ludlum's name on the cover of a book, it had better be good. This one most definitely is. THE TREADSTONE EXILE stars Adam Hayes, a former Treadstone associate who is trying to live his life outside the Treadstone influence. With no notice, Hayes finds himself stranded and making deals with undesirables to get back to his base camp. The usual/ unusual methods Hayes must utilize to escape tense situations and rescue those he is responsible for will most definitely bring back memories of Bourne excitement. While this is the second book in the series, i certainly hope to read many, many more.

Very slow, confusing start with a lot of jumping around and throwing new names out. Halfway through the book, I guess when things were being tied together, is when the action really started to make sense. The ending was quick.
I really had to fight to get through the first part, though.

Love the Treadstone stories. Great writing and superb quality characters. Highly highly recommended. Adam Hayes is a great character set in the Bourne world. Huge fan! Well written.

Joshua Hood, an author of several novels featuring men and women in combat has picked up the rights for the Robert Ludlum stories revolving around an experiment engineered by the CIA known as the Treadstone group. The idea was to artificially create a cadre of superior soldiers to be used in combat ensuring a favorable outcome for their user. "The Treadstone Exile" is the second of Mr. Hood's novels utilizing the theme.
Adam Hayes, a former Treadstone operative is found working in Africa and while flying on a charitable job is thrust into flying a mission for a group of extremists that forced his plane down. The story takes him back and forth between clandestine groups and in one mess after another. The author, whose experience includes five years of service with the elite 82nd airborne is completely knowledgeable about the world of the military. He is conversant with weapons used, situations that arise in combat, the probable reactions of those engaged in war and with the ability to organize literary scenarios around battle is well able to present his readers with realistic accounts of these conditions.
The knowledge of the reality of war and the weapons and conditions occurring in it is, I believe, overused in the current novel. The story is solely movement from one firefight to the next with just a bare hint of a cohesive plot. I've enjoyed Mr. Hood's novels and hope to continue to do so but do trust that he will leave the over description of weaponry and move more into plot including character development and story lines that do involve war time conditions. After all there are many examples of novels taking place within the framework of war that are considered masterpieces and read for many years.