The Unlikely Spy by Daniel Silva Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Unlikely Spy
Book Review: Too many different stories in this one book
Summary: 2 Stars
This book was really hard for me to get into. If you are like me and read a little and then dont pick a book up again for another few days, this one is too confusing. Just when you get to know a list of characters, the book starts a whole new story that is within the current story with all new characters. Also I felt there was just too much useless side information that was just filler. I am really busy and dont have much time to read so I want to be entertained (plus I have a horrible attention span).
If you are the type of person who will read a book from start to finish without stopping this might be for you. But otherwise this is just too much info and too many characters.
Book Review: Tremendous
Summary: 5 Stars
A few years ago I flew out to Miami and had some time to kill so I browsed the airport bookstore and picked this up. Started reading in the Terminal and couldnt put it down throught the whole flight. It is a tremendous espionage novel. Silva is extremely talented and he wrote a fantastic book.
I wont give it away, just going to tell you if you like espionage novels then go pick it up. Its Tremendous!!
Book Review: Unlikely Spy is so good - did it really happen?
Summary: 5 Stars
Having recently completed and thoroughly enjoyed the series of Gabriel Allon spy stories by Daniel Silva, I wondered how the remaining novels penned by Silva would compare, particularly those written prior to the Allon series.
I need not have worried as the Unlikely Spy is as good a read as anyone might want. Set in World War 2 England with sojourns into the USA and Germany, it is centred on German Spy Catherine Blake (her cover name) who is sent to England to steal secrets from English/US military so that Germany can discover the secrets of the pending invasion by the allies. Determined to stop her, Professor Alfred Vickery (selected personally by Churchill) and his team set up an elaborate counter intelligence manoeuvre to avoid the secrets being exposed. However, this is only the major layer of the story - there are so many twists and turns, which make this book so enthralling.
Silva's attention to detail in major character creation lets you almost see into the mind of each, yet it is impossible to guess what will happen next. Similarly, Silva's attention to detail about locations (except one - I suspect to protect the villagers for that location) is much appreciated - many times I got on to online maps/images to follow the plot. At more than 700 pages for a paperback it first seemed a daunting task, but it did not take long to complete as I just could not put it down! Thoroughly recommended.
Book Review: Variations on a theme by Follet
Summary: 4 Stars
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
On the verge of the Allied Invasion of Europe in 1944, the Allies were engaged in a massive deception program in which could have been ruined--changing the subsequent course of history--by a single credible report from a German spy. With overwhelming military power, the Germans had neglected espionage, and by 1944, virtually all German agents in England had been executed, imprisoned, or turned. Plans for the invasion included Operation Mulberry, a project to build temporary artificial harbors on the French coast. That was the actual historical situation.
THE SETUP
The story begins with the premise that the Germans have learned that bridge engineer Peter Jordan was playing a key, but unknown, role, and therefore they activate a "sleeper" agent (Catherine Blake, aka Anna Steiner), who had been in place since 1938, to discover Peter's role. Although the British had allegedly made the infiltration of new German spies virtually impossible, the Germans successfully and implausibly parachute in a new a new agent, Horst Neuman (aka James Porter), to act as a courier. Among a large cast of German intelligent agents, Kurt Vogel is the chief handler for the operation. Among a similarly large cast of British counterintelligence agents, former history professor Alfred Vicery leads the attempt to uncover the agents.
CAVEATS
If you take the premise that Ken Follet's "Eye of the Needle" is such a good story (it is) that it could benefit from being retold at five times the original length, by adding a dozen subplots and the necessary several dozen new characters as filler (a questionable proposition), the result would be something very much like "The Unlikely Spy". Naturally, you'd change the sex of the principal spy from male to female and make her bisexual to spice things up. Scenes in which an English detective tries to get help from idiotic village constables by phone are almost identical to corresponding scenes in "Eye of the Needle". The personal history, psychology, and modus operandi of "the Needle", appears to have been divided between "Catherine" and Horst, with minimal additional elaboration. Just as the "Needle" used a stiletto (i.e., a "needle")--as his weapon of choice, so did Catherine. Ultimately (as in "Eye of the Needle"), the spies even attempt an escape by fishing boat, in a storm, while surrounded by English submarines and warships. There is nothing wrong with homages--although perhaps Silva should acknowledge his.
The huge cast of characters in "Unlikely Spy" can be confusing to the reader. Most of the subplots and characters could be edited out in an abridged edition, with no effect what-so-ever on the story. READERS BEWARE--keeping a "dramatis personae" handy is required for most readers to keep track of the characters and thus the associated subplots. Despite the large cast of characters, or perhaps because of the large cast of characters, none are adequately fleshed out. I felt no particular empathy for any of them--something which is particularly needed when the plot drags, as it does for the last third of the novel.
Of course, the spy has to make crucial mistakes, but the mistakes Catherine makes are implausible. Catherine is a stereotyped cold-blooded killer whose only solution to any problem is murder. For example, although born in England, and therefore presumably a British citizen, Catherine disguised her return to England in 1938, during peacetime, by murdering an English woman. For this and several subsequent unnecessary murders, Catherine used her signature stiletto-under-the-rib-cage-into-the-heart technique, essentially identifying herself as German spy, and tying all the murders together. As others have noted, the final twist greatly strains credulity.
THE VERDICT
With these caveats, "The Unlikely Spy" is a very rich and entertaining novel.
Book Review: WWII Spy Suspense -- Among the Best
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm a big fan of Daniel Silva's books. I heartily enjoy them. This, his first novel, is more uneven than his previous books, as first novels often are (On the Road, for example,) but it's a fun WWII spy vs. spy suspense with great, deep characterization.
Arthur Vicary, a professor, is somewhat impressed into service in intelligence by his friend, Winston Churchill. His enemy, though he does not know who she is or even, at first, that she exists, is Catherine Blake, a deep-cover mole who has been inactive since the beginning of the war. She's also been coerced to serve, though with the ruthlessness one would expect from the Nazis. This makes her an ambivalent villainess, which makes for a far more interesting book than if she were merely a Mauser-toting, stiff-arm-flapping, knee-jerk honey trap. Here, Silva begins his explorations into the damage that a human psyche must acquire before the person can truly become a spy and a murderer. It's an interesting question more fully explored in Silva's later books about Gabriel Allon.
The plot is a basic one: can the Axis discover whether the D-Day invasion will be at Calais or Normandy, and can the Allies stop them from discovering it? No one ever went wrong with a strong plot. Because this is not billed as alternate history (like *The Plot Against America* by Roth,) you can kinda figure out the ending. Luckily, this book is about the ride, not about the end point.
Highly recommended.
TK Kenyon
Author of Rabid: A Novel and Callous: A Novel