Ludlumesque

English

Alternative forms

Ludlum-esque

Etymology

From Ludlum +‎ -esque.

Adjective

Ludlumesque (comparative more Ludlumesque, superlative most Ludlumesque)

Plotted in the style of Robert Ludlum's novels, noted especially for their intricate and extensive use of thriller tropes.
- 1986, “review of Robert Ludlum The Bourne Supremacy”, in Publishers Weekly:
  Ludlum has never come up with a more head-spinning, spine-jolting, intricately mystifying, Armageddonish, in short Ludlumesque, thriller than this.
- 1987, Stephen King, Misery, Viking, page ??:
  It had been damp; Scotch tape did not like the damp; in many cases her Ludlumesque little traps had undoubtedly just peeled off and floated away on some random draft.
- 2003, Jincy Willett, Winner of the National Book Award: A Novel of Fame, Honor, and Really Bad Weather, Thomas Dunne Books, page 112:
  There's even a best-selling paperback novelist living in Frome, Dante Minuto, whom none of us has ever seen, who writes Ludlumesque thrillers with Ludlumesque titles, like The Marchpane Cicatrix and The Wiesenheimer Punctilio.
- 2006, Stephen Brown, “Rattles from the Swill Bucket”, in Stephen Brown, editor, Consuming Books: The Marketing and Consumption of Literature, Routledge, page 13:
  Its singularly serendipitous nature lends itself to romantic novelisation (book cross-dressing, as it were) or Ludlumesque thrillers (book double-crossing, so to speak).
Titled in the style of Robert Ludlum's novels, typically consisting of "The", followed by a proper noun used attributively, then an understated common noun.
- 2003, Jincy Willett, Winner of the National Book Award: A Novel of Fame, Honor, and Really Bad Weather, Thomas Dunne Books, page 112:
  There's even a best-selling paperback novelist living in Frome, Dante Minuto, whom none of us has ever seen, who writes Ludlumesque thrillers with Ludlumesque titles, like The Marchpane Cicatrix and The Wiesenheimer Punctilio.
- 2008, Howard Fineman, The Thirteen American Arguments: Enduring Debates That Define and Inspire Our Country, Random House, page 38:
  It had not taken long for the press to bestow upon the event legendary status and a Ludlumesque name: “the 'macaca' incident.”
- 2009, John Sutherland, Curiosities of Literature, Skyhorse Publishing, page 184:
  Most publicized is the Italian firm, Bulgari jewellery, who commissioned Fay Weldon, in 2001, to write what became The Bulgari Connection (in the circumstances, a wonderfully wry, Ludlumesque, title).