The Unlikely Spy by Daniel Silva Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Unlikely Spy
Book Review: An engrossing thriller
Summary: 4 Stars
I won't attempt to summarize the plot of this great novel, as many other reviewers have done that already.
What I will say is that this is one of the most exciting and cleverly written spy novels I have read in a long time. True, there is much that is familiar with other novels of this WWII genre, but the characters, historical placement, plot, scene descriptions, tension, conclusion, and wrap-up make this a book well worth your time. I think that Silva has done a wonderful job in painting a picture of wartime England and Germany, and you can almost feel yourself bumping around in the darkened streets of London.
There are only a couple of places in the book where it seems that the good guys "lucked out", but that is a minor critique. The plot builds and moves through a series of intricate twists that rival the writings of other masters such as le Carre.
A real page turner. I highly recommend it.
Book Review: Better than his Mossad books
Summary: 4 Stars
I was surprised to find that this book was better than Daniel Silva's series featuring Israeli Mossad agent Gabriel Allon. (check name.) This tale revolves around German efforts to learn where the Allies plan to invade and Allied attempts to disguise the Normandy target. Silva weaves a complex web of spying and counterspying. His writing here is cooler and more solid than in the Mossad tales. The task of writing about Israel, Jews, Palestinians and the Holocaust is surely wrenching, but I don't think Silva quite mastered that. He seems compelled to somehow "balance" those novels politically by depicting the Israelis, embodied by Allon's boss, as blood-drenched, cynical killers, to "make up" for also showing the terrible toll Jews have paid in the last half century or so just for being Jews. And Allon's inner torture got old.
"The Unlikely Spy", however is more refreshing. Protagonist Alfred Vicary is a lonely university don to whom wartime gives one last chance to redeem himself from a costly error in the previous war and to somehow shake off the ghost of a long-unrequited love. Middle-aged, unglamorous, cerebral, he finds a new lease on life running a double-cross operation against the Germans, sleeping on an Army cot in his office and drinking bad coffee. He finds himself drafted into an urgent attempt to locate a German sleeper agent now believed to be targeting the Normandy invasion plans. He finds himself often stymied by his aristocratic boss Basil Boothby, a perfect ass who wants credit for Vicary's successes, to hang Vicary out to dry otherwise, and who sometimes seems to be working at cross purposes to him.
Vicary's target is the lovely, dangerous Catherine Blake, who has blended into British society for six years before being asked by Abwehr spymaster Kurt Vogel to accomplish this one task. Her target in turn is bridge-building engineer Peter Jordan, a lonely widower (of course) working on a top-secret aspect of the Normandy invasion. It isn't difficult to guess the general direction the plot goes in. Silva's intricate weaving of the whole thing, and his spycraft details, are enjoyable, with multiple German and English circles developed. Things develop and build steadily without flagging. The surprising denouement, as I suppose is inevitable with espionage books, is a bit confusing. Still, this is a fine book.
Book Review: Daniel Silva is Brilliant
Summary: 4 Stars
Mr. Silva took us back to WWII in this intriguing book. Simply put, I have never read a Daniel Silva book that I did not love. I look forward eagerly to each of his new books.
Book Review: Engrossing
Summary: 5 Stars
This novel about WWII spying, mainly the German attempts topenetrate British secrets relating to the coming invasion of
Europe, is superb. The writing is first-class, and the plot
moves along at speed at all times, and the characters on all
sides are entertaining and plausible.
There are sub-plots, and there are numberous characters in this
story, but, unlike many such attempts, all these characters are
fascinating, and when the story switches from one scenerio to
another, the readers' interests continue unabated. The plot
and sub-plots are complex enough, and properly entertaining,
that the reader with proper interest will find this very difficult to put down to be picked up and resumed later.
The story involves English professors who leave their quiet
world of contemplation and study to go into a world of intrigue,
lies, disinformation and danger, all while being all-to-aware
of the passage of precious time that could spell the end of their civilization. Hitler and the Nazis occupy most of Europe,
and they still have hopes of dominating the world at that time
and for many years to come.
We get to meet some of the fascinating characters of that period, such as Churchill, Hitler, Himmler, Schellenberg, and
Canaris; there is nothing new about these people, but the author has his facts down, and he works in known and interesting
aspects of these people, all the while spinning out his interesting tale of the people engaged in the highest level of
spying, all for the highest possible stakes.
The focus of his story is the ordinariness of all the participants, who all work harder, and achieve more, than they
would have thought possible. War is hell, yes, but it can also
be stimulating and bring out the best in people. Just as it
can bring out the worst.
And this author, in this story, has several such stories, and
they are all interesting and worth reading. Plus, these people
don't spend all their time plotting and spying; they drink
cold white wine, dream about a better life, yearn for a peaceful
time again, and they search for love.
This book is first-class, and it should be read by anyone interested in intrigue and romance in the WWII era.
Book Review: Enjoyable and Suspenseful
Summary: 5 Stars
Disclaimer: I'm a sucker for WWII and / or spy books
Before I start - this is not a "Gabriel Allon" book as mentioned on Amazon's book title.
"The Unlikely Spy" is a fast paced page turner, set mostly in days preceding the Normandy invasion in WWII. The story's unlikely hero is a university professor named Alfred Vicray who was recruited by none other then Winston Churchill himself to work for the British MI5.
Vicary is a spy catcher - he does his job well until realizing that a small group of German sleeper agents trained by Abwehr officer Kurt Vogel are still in Britain. The threat is that the German agents could discover the secrets to the invasion and allow the Germans to setup a proper defense line (or call the invasion off) and the invasion would fail.
Chief among the German spies is Anna Katerina von Steiner, known in Britain as Dutch tourist Catherine Blake. Catherine is an attractive woman and a top notch spy who has been a sleeper agent in London for six years - now she has been activated by Vogel.
Let the mind games and puzzles begin....
The plot twists and turns very cleverly and the ending caught me by surprise. Even though this is a big book, the narrative is told masterfully, the twists keep coming and it's hard to stop reading.
The characters in the book are well drawn, they each are painted in shades of gray -the German spies have some redeeming qualities and the English MI5 agents are not depicted as saints doing G-d's work.