Confessor (Paperback)

Others have written good reviews for this book so obviously my opinion isn't shared by all, but Silva is dangerously close to following in the footsteps of John Le Carre' by writing books that strive to be so realistic that they end up being boring. If I want 100-percent realism, I'll read a non-fiction book. When I read a spy thriller I expect a moderate amount of escapism, at least enough to keep me excited while turning the pages. For me to keep buying Silva's novels, he'll need to do a far better job than he's done over his past 3 or 4 books.

The Confessor exhibits a polished prose, good plotting, satisfactory outline of characters, and employment of resources to grab the reader attention

The core of this story is the willingness of the new elected Pope Paul the VII to release secluded key information and documents to prove the Church silence and Vatican-Nazi links during the Holocaust of the Jews at the time of the Second World War.

The new Pope also wants to follow a policy intended to foster better relationship with the Jews and the first step of his project is to go and visit the Great Synagogue of Rome on the other side of the city, however his efforts will be confronted by the conspiracy of an influential inside Catholic sect called "Crux Vera" adamant to maintain the status quo so as not to undermine the world political power of the Church, the reader is then presented with two antagonist factions from beginning to end

To carry out his idea, Silva resorts to alluring elements typical of this type of novels, the Israeli Spy Agency Mossad, the evil maneuvers of the Priests of the Vatican Curia, first class murderers and terrorists for hire, etc

And here comes the weak point (the missing star), if you dare to include in a novel powerful spy features like the Vatican and the Mossad that means you are playing heavyweight, and the only way to exploit them efficiently is long serious background research, something I have never noticed

Lack of research is manifest since most chapters are short when the first half of them should have been devoted to detail the exploits of the research and the last half to tell related actions and events or even they could be mixed up, that would have rendered a longer fruitful captivating story

If Mr Silva makes the big effort to include more enlightening research in his work, he will become a top international thriller, good research is his missing link up to date