The Matarese Circle was published by Richard Marek Publishers in 1979. Brandon Scofield (CIA) and Vasili Taleniekov (KGB) are the best field agents in their respective services — and bitter personal enemies. Both are targeted for termination by their own agencies. Both discover, independently, evidence of a conspiracy that transcends the Cold War: the Matarese, a secret organization founded in the nineteenth century by a Corsican padrone, which has infiltrated both superpowers and plans to engineer a global crisis that will allow it to seize control of the international order.
Ludlum’s premise requires his two protagonists to overcome their mutual hatred and cooperate against a common enemy — an alliance that each regards as unnatural and potentially fatal. The novel moves across Europe and America as Scofield and Taleniekov trace the Matarese from its Corsican origins through its contemporary tentacles in government, industry, and intelligence services.
The conspiracy is Ludlum’s grandest: not a single government’s plot or a simple criminal enterprise but a multigenerational design for world domination — the kind of paranoid architecture that gives Ludlum’s work its distinctive flavor. The Matarese (like SPECTRE in the Bond novels, but treated with deadly seriousness) represents the fear that behind the visible conflicts of geopolitics lies a hidden unity of power that renders all political ideologies merely facades.
Collecting The Matarese Circle
First edition (Richard Marek Publishers, New York, 1979): Cloth with dust jacket.
Market values:
- First edition, fine/fine: $40–$100
- Very good: $15–$40
Projected values (2026–2036): Moderate appreciation.
The Enemy of My Enemy
An American CIA agent and a Soviet KGB agent — sworn enemies — must join forces to stop the Matarese, a secret organization of international financiers and power brokers who plan to control the world economy. The Cold War alliance-of-enemies plot was one of Ludlum’s most effective devices, and the novel is considered one of his strongest after the Bourne trilogy.
Frequently Asked Questions
Did Ludlum plan the Bourne sequels? Ludlum wrote three Bourne novels: The Bourne Identity (1980), The Bourne Supremacy (1986), and The Bourne Ultimatum (1990). After his death in 2001, the Eric Van Lustbader continuation novels were authorized by his estate. The Matt Damon films diverge significantly from the novels’ plots while keeping the core premise of an amnesiac spy.