The Ludlum Pattern

The title is easy. Take "the". Add a name. Add a noun. There you have it.
The Icarus Agenda
The Bourne Identity
The Aquitaine Progression
etc
The hero's name varies but the hero himself doesn't. He's tall, handsome. He's knowledgeable, skilled, experienced, cunning. His instinct is simply infallible. Bad guys are after him. Deception, betrayal, tight situations. In the end, he always prevails.
That's the advantage of Robert Ludlum. Unlike a box of chocolate, when you pick one of his books, you know exactly what you're going to get. In that sense, it's a safe bet.
This is why, when I ran out of things to read yesterday, I saw a Ludlum at the drugstore and I thought: "Why not?"
However, there is a very real problem with Ludlum. His titles, plots and heroes are interchangeable. So how do you remember which book you've read and which you haven't?
Man. It's a real puzzle. An extreme difficulty. I wish Jason Bourne a.k.a. Joel Converse a.k.a. Hal Ambler a.k.a. Todd Belknap was here. His instinct would tell him for sure. Mine is not so efficient, so I took a chance. It was my lucky day: upon verification, I did not already own the Ludlum I got yesterday. So far it's really exciting. The hero is tall and handsome. Bad guys are after him but he's not sure why...

Now shall I tell you about Dick Francis?