English Summary/英文概要： 打开英文书评 Literary spy thriller. Rating 10 out of 10:
”…one of those individual with multiple faces – like so many of the great spies of Cold War mythology – who invariable turn out to be different from who they seem and, when we think we think we have located them in the center of a great riddle. Show up as part of another, even greater riddle…”
“Everyone enjoys wearing masks, but the ultimate mask is alternative identities you can slip into and out of like a change of clothing – aliases, biographies that go with them, eventually if you are really good, personalities and languages that go with the biographies” or in the intelligence parlance a “perfect legend.”

Who is Martin Odum? Is he a legend or a real person? Who is Dante Pippin, the suave James Bond like secret operative? Who is Linconc Dittman, a US Civil War expert and a sharpshooter? Who is Jozel Kafkor, the spy who is buried alive under a layer of asphalt when the book opens? Are they one and the same person or are they four different persons or just different legends. As appropriate in the world of secret intelligence you never find out not even at the end of book, an end where David Pippin poses an ultimate to the director of secret operation of the CIA.
Martin Odum is retired from the CIA, actually he is forced out. He sets himself up as a private investigator with not much business. When Elena Karstner comes to find him and asks him to find the missing husband of her sister who lives in Israel. Martin does turn down the job. He doesn’t do missing husbands. When the head of secret operations at the CIA visits him and tells him not to find this “particular missing husband” Martin has a change of heart, not of mind. Why does the CIA not to find that particular missing husband? Why does the CIA not want him to find Samat Ugor Zhilov? Because of the pressure of the CIA decides to take on the case and this start a quest that leads him from Israel, to Russia and to the Amish country in upstate New York. There are switching in identity that Martin Odum doesn’t seem aware of.
Like with any top-notch literary spy thriller telling the rest of the story will give the plot away. Let’s just say that the excitement builds untll the last page of the book when Dante Pippin tells the head of secret operation to resign within a week. If she doesn’t do so Martin, Dante, Lincoln and Jozef will make public the illegal activities she nicknamed Fred Astaire, was engaged in during the administration of Boris Yelstin, an activity illegal under the laws and rules that govern CIA operations

Chinese Summary/中文概要： 我們不時會讀到一些讓我們驚嘆不已，原汁原味的大手筆，最近幾年裡，出了安瑪麗‧麥克唐納的(Ann-Marie MacDonald) 《The Way the Crow Flies》、丹尼斯‧萊漢的神密河流(Dennis Lehane/ Mystic River)還有John Burdett的“Bangkok 8”。而Robert Littell的這本《傳奇》也是難得的大作之一。Littell小說的優秀是眾人皆知的，特別是《A.J.Lewinter的背叛》和《姐妹花》這兩部，但是在古稀之年，Littell可以不斷地突破自我，寫出這樣一部令人炫目的作品實數不易，作品的主角是個身分極其複雜的人物-----用行話來說的話就是“傳奇”，複雜的程度連主角自己都搞不清楚。 故事的開頭是在1993的某個黎明，地點是俄羅斯的鄉村，工人們正在修沿河邊的一條馬路。一艘漁船從清晨的迷霧中露出了身影。有三個人涉水上岸了，其中兩人是警察，另一個渾身赤裸，雙手被捆起來。他頭戴荊棘冠，鮮血從他的面龐上滴下。他背後用別針別了一塊大紙版，上面寫著“間諜Kafkor”。 迷迷糊糊的他渾身青一塊紫一塊，傷痕累累，他被兩個人推上了馬路，他們還遞給他一支煙。俄羅斯流氓大亨Oligarkh坐在黑色賓士車裡，看著他們把他推入路上的一個洞裡。有個老婦人懇求他們饒過他一命，但是他們還是把他活埋了，並把這個洞鋪平。工人一旁偷偷攝影這個場景，但也沒人覺得這很奇怪，因為“最近，這樣的事情經常會發生在俄羅斯。”這樣一個令人不安的超現實場景直到故事最後幾頁讀者才會得到解答。 接著故事切換到1997年，我們遇到了前中情局的特務Martin Odum，他目前住在.布魯克林的一個中國餐館的樓上，目前工作是無關緊要的私家偵探（我對於偵探的了解全部是從韓弗理‧博加特(Humphrey Bogart)的角色中獲悉的）。一個名叫Stella的女人來找他，要他幫忙尋找失蹤的妹夫，他是個神祕的俄羅斯人，名叫Samat。也許是因為他對Stella有相當的好感，當然更重要的是他前中情局老闆警告他別理會這個案子，所以Martin硬是要管定這個案子。他開始調查Samat這個流放的俄羅斯犯人.。Odum有兩個身份，一是愛爾蘭裔的爆破專家Dante Pippin; 一是美國內戰的積極分子同時也是CIA的神槍手Lincoln Dittmann。Odum的人生和卡夫卡筆下的故事一樣，一個「掙扎在夢魘般世界裡的人」，所以他將不僅是尋找Samat一個人，同時也是在尋找自我。

為了找到Samat ，Odum開始周遊世界，同使他也時常會回到記憶中的過去。1991年，Odum以Lincoln Dittmann的身分，來到巴西的原始叢林，安排把硝酸銨賣給本-拉登的基地組織，基地組織打算用它做成炸藥，去炸華爾街；雖轟炸計劃已阻攔了，但是卻沒把握機會抓住賓拉登。1997年坐落在咸海上的一個地獄般的小島，這裡的頭頭是個自稱為哈姆雷特的殺人惡魔，Odum在這裡發現了一個蘇聯的生化武器工廠，這個工廠用活人來實驗他們的致命毒瓦斯武器，而這些武器“可以幫助俄羅斯人不受美國壟斷統治”。 Littell最新小說《伙伴》就是從蘇維埃的解體追溯至俄羅斯戰後。而《傳奇》最突出的一點就是他把今天的俄羅斯描述成一個由盜賊統治的國家----一個強盜大國，而這一切這都是由美國造成的。俄美兩國的冷戰悄無聲息的進行著，一邊是中情局極力要搞垮俄羅斯，造成俄羅斯的動湯不安，另一邊是俄羅斯的頑強反抗。

Awards/获奖情况： This is a highly readable literary spy thriller but one has to pay attention to the text as the four people, or four legends, keep coming on and off the scene. Although it didn’t receive the attention of the Da Vince Code, this is a far superior book. Well written, well planned and thought out. It’s so exciting that I read it in two evenings.