The Unlikely Spy, by Daniel Silva

Daniel Silva is a great writer of thrillers of espionage. His writings remind me of the early John Le Carré. In this book, The Unlikely Spy, his debut novel, he looks behind the curtain of The Unlikely Spy, daniel Silva secrecy surrounding espionage during World War II, and uses it as the basis for a great and exciting as well as innovative spy thriller. He shows that, as Le Carré, he has a lot of knowledge about spy craft as well as the workings of anti-espionage organizations.

In The Unlikely Spy Silva deals with the Allies' effort to protect perhaps the greatest secrets of all during World War II – the location of the planned D-Day landings in France. Silva's story has an innovative plot with roots both in Nazi-Germany’s spy machine ran by Admiral Canaris and a huge counter-intelligence effort, involving both the American and the British intelligence services, and having been cleared all the way up to Prime Minister Winston Churchill!

The stakes on both sides are extremely high: a successful invasion does not assure victory, but defeat on the beaches will prolong the war and, very possibly, lose it. Much hinges on what the enemy knows about the undertaking. "In wartime," Winston Churchill wrote, "truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies."

The main story in The Unlikely Spy takes place in 1943, but with excursions to events at previous points in time leading up to the key events. In 1943, Britain's counter-intelligence service MI5 has identified and captured virtually all of the German spies sent to the country so far. Some has been hanged; some has been turned and are used to feed back carefully crafted misinformation to their controllers in Germany.

But now the Germans awaken a sleeping agent to get more intelligence about the upcoming British invasion. And when the British learn about this, they realize that one piece of correct information may destroy the house of cards – based on endless lies – they have so carefully constructed. The sleeper-agent is Catherine Blake, a very beautiful and seductive agent who began her entry into Britain with the cold-blooded killing of a young female painter. As she comes closer and closer to penetrating the Allied operation, code-named Operation Mulberry, the action accelerates. Will the invasion plan succeed with this a brilliant agent at work? Can she be stopped in time?

Silva's characters are strong. Along with a teeming cast of other characters, real and fictional, they bring the chase to a furious and satisfying climax. And the final plot twist is original, yet logical. The Unlikely Spy is a strong and promising debut book.

Order Daniel Silva's The Unlikely Spy from amazon UK. See the other Daniel Silva thrillers as well at amazon UK!

More reviews of books by Daniel Silva: Daniel Silva page 2, Daniel Silva page 3!

Moscow Rules, by Daniel Silva

Moscow Rules is Daniel Silva's Moscow Rules by Daniel Silva eighth novel of espionage and international intrigue. It is a spy thriller in the genre of the early

Daniel Silva

(born 1960), has worked as a journalist for United Press International, among other UPI's Middle East correspondent, and CNN's Washington Bureau. In 1994 he began work on his first novel, The Unlikely Spy. The novel became a bestseller and in 1997 he left CNN to pursue writing full-time. Since then several of his books have been #1 New York Times Bestsellers.

He now lives in Georgetown in Washington, DC, with his wife, NBC Today Show's national correspondent Jamie Gangel, and their children.

Daniel Silva

Books by Daniel Silva:

  • 1996 The Unlikely Spy Order: US, UK
The Michael Osbourne series:
  • 1998 The Mark of the Assassin Order: US, UK
  • 1999 The Marching Season Order: US, UK
The Gabriel Allon series:
John Lè Carre, which has all the old stuff about spycraft, a good international plot, and the various secret services - KGB, Mossad, CIA, MI6, and so on. In this book Gabriel Allon has just been married and is on his honeymoon, but is still summoned by Israeli intelligence from his holiday.

Daniel Silva's books are popular. One reason, of course, is that international spy novels are exciting. They are stories from another planet than the one most of us inhabit. Another major reason, however, is also the author’s wonderful ability to put a human face on these big-picture themes. This is the case in Moscow Rules as well.

Gabriel Allon is sent to Rome for a one time meeting with the editor of an investigative news journal in Russia. However, the meeting never takes place as the man is murdered moments before meeting Allon. Allon then has to go to Moscow to find out what the message he never received was. The trails lead to a Russian millionaire, Ivan Kharkov. This former KGB agent has both legitimate and illegitimate enterprises.

When the Soviet Union began to crumble, Kharkov amassed a fortune. He became one of the newly minted billionaires of the new Kremlin. Now it is rumored that that Kharkov is amassing dangerous arms to sell to al-Qaeda. Allon has no choice but to take him on. And, as a member of Israel’s foreign intelligence service, he brings together and manages a group of spies and counter spies, negotiators and mediators, in order to stop the sale of the arms to al-Qaeda. Time is quickly running out.

Kharkov turns out to be a worthy opponent - he is smart, resourceful, cunning, and brutal. One that requires Allon to play by the old, time-worn Moscow Rules.

For me, this was a great read. Daniel Silva writes well, the plot moves rapidly, and side-plots and main plots are mixed seamlessly. Recommended for spy thriller addidicts and lovers of exciting books!

Links to Daniel Silva's books at: Amazon US, amazon UK, Bokkilden.no, Haugen bok

The Mark of the Assassin, by Daniel Silva

This is a great suspense The Mark of the Assassin, by Daniel Silva masterpiece, taking place in a modern intelligence setting with corrupt government officials and wealthy special interests. The Mark of the Assassin has a swiftly paced, internationally tangled plot and lots of suspense.

Michael Osbourne (CIA) is called in to investigate the terrorist bombing of an airliner off the coast of Long Island. He is investigating whether the Middle Eastern terrorist group known as the Sword of Gaza was responsible for the downing of the airliner.

There are few clues, but a body is found in the water near the crash site with three bullet holes in its face. That is the mark of a deadly assassin named October, a cold professional killer Osbourne has faced before, and perhaps the world's deadliest assassin. Osbourne is sure that he is the man responsible for the murder of a woman Osbourne loved years ago.

When Osbourne gets on the trail of the assassin, he finds himself getting closer and closer to solving the puzzle of the airline crash as well as to the truth of the people who are the assassin's employers – an international group using terrorism and assassination to direct world events in such a way as to promote their interests. However, by doing this Osbourne also places himself and his loved ones in the sights of the most fearsome man on earth.

For thriller enthusiasts, The Mark of the Assassin is a book to read. Exciting, well written, with great plot, good characters and lots of excitement. (Best to read this book prior to the follow-up, The Marching Season.)

The Marching Season, by Daniel Silva

The Marching Season is the sequel toThe Marching season, by Daniel Silva The Mark of the Assassin, and again features Michael Osbourne. It continues where the first Osbourne-book ended. The key characters are the same – in addition to Osbourne, his wife Elizabeth, the assassin October (Jean-Paul Delaroche), his father-in-law Douglas Cannon, Monica Tyler of the CIA, and others.

The Marching Season takes place during the first uncertain year of the peace process in Northern Ireland. With three savage acts of terrorism on a single night, a renegade group of Protestant extremists tries to turn back the hands of time. Their goal is to shatter the peace and make certain Ulster remains forever part of the United Kingdom.

Retired CIA officer Michael Osbourne, the hero of Mark of the Assassin, is brought back and into the thick of all this when his father-in-law, former U.S. Senator Douglas Cannon, is nominated to be the new American ambassador to London. Michael first suspects, then discovers that the Protestant gunmen have marked Cannon for execution. Thus starts a deadly contest of wits and deception which will determine whether the peace in Northern Ireland will survive and whether his father-in-law lives or dies.

What Michael Osbourne does not realize, but we as readers are aware of, is that Michael is a minor player in a much larger game masterminded by an organization calling itself the Society, a secret order that uses its power and influence to foster global unrest for financial gain. Also, as it turns out, Michael is again up against his personal foe, the world's most dangerous assassin, October.

The book has a set of good key characters, a good but perhaps a little too wide plot, and lots of interacting action. The Marching Season is a certainly a novel of power and intrigue, where many things are not what they seem to be. It is a good read – entertaining, exciting - but to my mind still one of the weaker Daniel Silva novels.