The Unlikely Spy: A Novel (Hardcover)

THE UNLIKELY SPY is an old-fashioned thriller, in the vein of the great spy novels of earlier decades.

Set principally in England during World War II--with detours to New York and Nazi Germany--it is a gripping story which keeps the reader turning the pages to see what will happen next.

The plot is brilliant in it conception, in its breadth, and in the execution.

Silva does a good job conveying what life must have been like in London during those hard years of World War II.

His premise is that the Allies had to mislead the Nazis, carefully and deliberately, to misdirect them from expecting the invasion of Normandy, this being "misinformation" in the purest sense of the word.

This novel focuses on the British Secret Service (precursor of the service in which the fictional James Bond is said to have been a member) and on exactly how they could structure this deception. There is a great deal of plausible detail, and some cliffhanging moments in Silva's telling. His research is awe-inspiring.

Long as the book runs, there are a few subplots and earlier clues that remain unaddressed at its conclusion--or, alternatively, these are tied up too simplistically, too off-handedly, too incompletely, to do anything but cheat the engaged reader.

Still, these few blips are insignificant in a work of this magnitude. Daniel Silva has proven that his talents are as good as anybody writing today.

The novel is set in WWII as Germany tries to find the secret to the D-Day invasion and England tries to keep them from getting that secret. I read one review which said Silva made up facts about the deception and what actually occurred during that time. For me that didn't matter (if that's true) because the true story is about the spies and the chase. The secrets they are peddling are of secondary importance.

The story revolves around Catherine Blake, a German spy in England who is stealing secrets from Peter Jordan, an American helping the British prepare for the invasion. Catherine Blake is a great character who seems to regret what she is doing as a spy but also views it as a game that she is competing to win. At the end of the novel as the authorities close in, Blake becomes a much less of an interesting person, but the setup Silva gives her in the beginning is great.

The man trying to stop the spies is a professor named Alfred Vicary. He is an older man with many regrets yet he is great at what he does. He does a great job of piecing together the info needed to catch the spies.

This novel has many twists and turns and Silva does something many authors don't that I only noticed because he included it. Silva actually includes the scenes of suspicious behavior. So, instead of having Vicary being suspicious of Boothby, his boss, Silva writes a scene of Boothby doing suspicous behavior. This made me wonder what was Boothby actually doing (as were the other characters) instead of just relying on what Vicary thinks.

A great line uttered by Vicary sums up the suspense of the twists and turns of the novel. Vicary is interviewing Peter Jordan, the American architect. After hours of intense questioning, Vicary asks, almost as an afterthought, "You are Peter Jordan, aren't you?" This makes me wonder if one of the most straight foward characters isn't what he seems.

This novel builds up to a great twist at the end and it does a great job of explaining all that went on before it. The twist for me was good, but not the best. I can't wait to read more of Silva's books.