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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN num: 9780553280630
ISBN number: 0553280635
Label: Bantam
Manufacturer: Bantam
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 448
Printing Date: July 01, 1989
Publishing house: Bantam
Release Date: July 01, 1989
Sale Popularity Level: 70215
Studio: Bantam
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
Autumn 1943. Global espionage elite converge on Buenos Aires. Intense, high-level covert negotiations will soon bear dangerous fruit with the aid of expatriate German industrialist Erich Rhinemann. American agent David Spaulding will be there. His top-secret mission can bring the war to an explosive end. But what happens here in this city of assassins, double crosses, and erotic encounters is to be the most sinister and terrifying deal ever made between two nations at war. Quickly, the game changes, truths darken, hidden secrets emerge. And suddenly Spaulding is the man in between, the man furiously struggling for his sanity, the woman he loves, and his very life... the only man who can save the world from the horrible truth of The Rhinemann Exchange.
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
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've read this book some 20 years ago, if my memory serves me right. I looked for this book and bought it since I would like to read it again!!!
Good reading........suggest book lovers to read.
Rated by buyers 
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It's WWII. The German rocket plant Peenemunde is in trouble because it's out of industrial grade diamonds to use in their machinery. The United States are trying to develop gyroscopes that will work with high altitude bombers. Realizing they can help each other, Germany and the United States develop a clandestine exchange; diamonds for schematics. David Spaulding is the American agent sent to Argentina to complete the trade, but naturally their are a myriad of complications including an underground organization who will stop at nothing to stop the exchange.
Ludlum creates characters you can root for and against and puts them in the middle of a fascinating scenario. There are a lot of twists and turns, some I didn't see coming and the action keeps moving at a fast pace.
Rated by buyers -
Robert Ludlum definitely hits his straps with this one. The protagonist in this book is an ultra competent spy, based in Portugal. He is 'That Man in Lisbon'. The roots of the plot come out of WWII.
The Rhinemann exchange is diamonds for technology, pretty much, the Rhinemann being a scientist. Our man in Lisbon gets involved with a woman, and also realises a Jewish activist group is trying to stop what he is up to.
Definitely one of Ludlum's works to pick out, if you are only going to sample a few.
Rated by buyers -
Ludlum has written several other very good spy stories, but in my opinion, this is his best. The events he desribes which go to make up the story follow each other in a logical progression, and therefore it is easy to see why what came after was necessarily preceded by what came before, and you are not left with asking yourself "how did this happen"? The mystery is neatly unfolded. The characters are well-described and interesting.
The most basic premise of the story is the trade being arranged between the United States and Germany for materials critical to the war effort for both. The Germans need industrial diamonds for their Peenemunde rocket project, and the US needs a high-altitude gyroscope for its bombing runs, and an exchange is arranged in Buenos Aires, Argentina, a neutral venue. But our Man from Lisbon, Secret Agent David Spaulding is unaware of this treasonous act of helping the enemy by supplying them with the diamonds they need, because he is only aware of his assignment to bring back the gyroscope plans. But a very interested third party intervenes and makes him aware of the true nature of the deal, and from that point he has to deal with a new situation, and does he ever ! No review that I have read explicitly mentions the industrial treason on the part of a US manufacturer who can fulfill the contract for the gyroscope only by arranging this trade, but it is an important part of the story.
I would agree with some critics that, in broad outline, there is a sameness to all of Ludlum's works, but this is his genre - he writes spy novels. In this particular one, the plot is very interesting, the characters are distinguishable one from the other and are interesting as well, and they are believable.
From beginning to end, and throughout the middle, as well, it is a fast-paced, gripping tale, and a good read indeed.
Rated by buyers -
The governed have always been suspicious of an unhealthy collusion between their government and the industrial interests. Here, Robert Ludlum plays to our wildest fears.
The Rhinemann Exchange takes us to the Second World War with America barely in the sidelines, when David Spaulding, son of concert pianists, is co-opted to wage clandestine warfare in Portugal.
The Germans have been unable to get industrial diamonds for their rockets, while the Americans cannot develop high-altitude altimeters for their bombers. Each side has what the other needs. An exchange is planned in Argentina. Spaulding is transferred there with some codes. The result is an exploding aircraft and tons of dead bodies.
The Rhinemann Exchange does not disappoint. A gripping plot and crisp writing, where tension jumps out the pages. Spaulding is a killing machine we can relate to.
However this is the Ludlum. So we get the unconscionable body count, the near fatal misses, and the pudgy bureaucrats who move men like pawns: if not realistic, then at least, plausible.
Thirty years since, we still grapple with some of the issues. For instance, how close should government and industry work? Should companies profit from a war effort?
The Exchange does not produce answers, but it does make for better questions.
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