In The Cry of the Halidon Ludlum effortlessly adopts and adapts all the cliches of a trashy thriller. His narration resembles a downhill race, with the minimum attention to grace and style in an effort to generate the maximum amount of speed and thrill. On the other hand, there is no question that, however obliquely, his novel generates a lot of interesting questions, although almost entirely in terms of theme and social concern, rather than literary or narrative technique. In forming your response to this bestselling book you may wish to consider the following questions.

1. Do you feel that by reading The Cry of the Halidon you have learned anything about the work, technique, and strategies, of real-life intelligence agents?

2. Did you find these central premises of the novel believable: -a worldwide conspiracy foiled by a lone hero?