Mark of the Assassin

Rating:
Summary: Left Wing Ryan
Review: If you are growing tired of the ideological bent of Tom Clancy and Jack Ryan, meet Daniel Silva. This book is something you might have gotten to read if Tom Clancy had been a liberal.

A mole assassin is left stranded in deep cover by the end of the Cold War. He goes into business for himself and is ultimately hired by the military-industrial complex to shoot down a passenger jet and blame it on the Palestinians. The real object of the exercise is to get America to deploy a missile defense system and re-elect a right wing President.

A resourceful CIA analyst is thrown into the fray and disrupts the bad guys' plans after a lot of good people (including his own wife) have been killed, wounded or otherwise put in harm's way.
If this sounds familiar, it should. It is a variation of the plot of Clancy's Patriot Games, brought out of Ireland and set on the post 9/11 international stage.

Silva did much better with The English Assassin. This is basic fluff.

Rating:
Summary: The Left's Tom Clancy
Review: Let's see, a stupid Republican US Chief Executive who is a patsy for his right-wing handlers, a psycho born-again Christian defense contractor who (God forbid) gets on his knees to pray, a crusading left-wing journalist and the token liberal attorney from a conservative Washington law firm - - can you say "caricature"? Throw in some female careerist infertility and you have the makings of yet another Silva thriller. Can't say I got beyond page 100 in this one. I like a good spy thriller like the next gal, but the stereotypes are over the top on this one, which sent me to the in-flight magazine in the seat pocket in front of me.

Rating:
Summary: One of the Best Recent Spy Thrillers
Review: Silva's book isn't perfect, but it's a darn good read nonetheless. His writing is far better than most spy thriller writers and is peppered with exotic European locales and interesting characters. This is a thriller for those who snooze through all the techno mumbo-jumbo of Clancy's books and their ilk. This is more of a character-driven thriller in the tradition of the better Robert Ludlum books. Excitement without the special effects. There are, of course, a few overused plot devices in this one, but all in all it's quite a fun read.

Rating:
Summary: Fails to Leave a Mark
Review: Some writers run aground as there careers progress, while others find greater depths. Having discovered Silva's writing through "The Dead Artist" and "The English Assassin," I've come to expect subtlety and nuance, with sympathetic characters. Silva is one of my new favorite authors.

Going back to read "The Mark of the Assassin," for me, was a disappointment. While Silva's concepts and characters match those of his later books, he seems less focused here. We watch political maneuverings, clandestine meetings, brutal attacks, yet never really doubt what's going on. We see little of the main characters within the first hundred pages, and when Michael Osbourne and his wife do take center stage, they are puppets in a less than credible play.

The writing is fine. Dialogue moves along. But the improbabilities and coincidences begin to mount quickly. Even as the pace picks up in the last quarter of the book, I found myself doubting the scenes. One example: the KGB trained, world-renowned assassin moves in for the kill by taking the disguise of a bicycle courier(even getting multiple piercings to look the part), but as soon as our erstwhile hero sees him from a distance, the cover is blown. Ah, too bad--all that effort for nothing.

For a fast-paced story and streamlined writing, "The Mark of the Assassin" surpasses many second-rate novels. Clearly, though, with only his second book, Silva was fine-tuning his storytelling, and I had a difficult time getting lost in this tale. Having been spoiled by his newer, richer work, I finished this one with barely a mark.