The Road to Gandolfo
1975 story by Michael Shepherd
Dewey Decimal
The Road to Gandolfo is a story by Michael Shepherd (a pen name used by Robert Ludlum) about General MacKenzie Hawkins ("The Hawk"), a military legend and Army veteran. He defaces an important Chinese memorial as a result of being drugged by a Chinese general and is later kicked out of the Army. Seeking revenge, he plots to kidnap Pope Francesco I and hold him for ransom of $400 million, one dollar for every Catholic in the world.
The only person who can stop him is Sam Devereaux, an army lawyer who rescues the Hawk from China but subsequently himself gets trapped in the Hawk's plan. The story revolves around how Hawkins executes the mission with amazing precision and discipline along with his band of seven provocateurs and the unexpected reaction by Pope Francesco.
Additional information
Unlike the usual books by Ludlum, this one tends to be overwhelmingly humorous. There is a sequel to this story called The Road to Omaha. The character MacKenzie Hawkins is also mentioned fleetingly in Robert Ludlum's novel The Bourne Identity, where he is mentioned to have previously served in Burma.
Publication history
- 1975, US, Dial Press ISBN 0-8037-5920-7, Pub date January 1975, Hardback
- 1982, US, Bantam Books ISBN 0-553-26081-2, Pub date July 1, 1982, Paperback
- 1976, UK, Grafton ISBN 0-246-10925-4 Pub date August 23, 1976, Hardback
- 1992, UK, HarperCollins ISBN 0-586-04375-6, Pub date March 26, 1992, Paperback
External links
- The Road to Gandolfo - Robert Ludlum Book Review
- v
- t
- e
Novels by Robert Ludlum
- The Scarlatti Inheritance (1971)
- The Osterman Weekend (1972)
- The Matlock Paper (1973)
- Trevayne (1973)
- The Cry of the Halidon (1974)
- The Rhinemann Exchange (1974)
- The Road to Gandolfo (1975)
- The Gemini Contenders (1976)
- The Chancellor Manuscript (1977)
- The Holcroft Covenant (1978)
- The Parsifal Mosaic (1982)
- The Aquitaine Progression (1984)
- The Icarus Agenda (1988)
- The Road to Omaha (1992)
- The Scorpio Illusion (1993)
- The Apocalypse Watch (1995)
- The Prometheus Deception (2000)
- The Sigma Protocol (2001)
- The Janson Directive (2002)
- The Tristan Betrayal (2003)
- The Ambler Warning (2005)
- The Bancroft Strategy (2006)
- The Bourne Identity (1980)
- The Bourne Supremacy (1986)
- The Bourne Ultimatum (1990)
- The Matarese Circle (1979)
- The Matarese Countdown (1997)
- Covert-One series
 | This article about a crime novel of the 1970s is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. See guidelines for writing about novels. Further suggestions might be found on the article's talk page. |
- v
- t
- e
