The Confessor

Rating:
Summary: BEST SILVA BOOK YET! !!
Review: I have been a fan from the start but no question this is his BEST book yet! The characters jump off the page and you can not put it down! I loved the intrigue of the Vatican and that fact that it was still respectful! Thank you Daniel Silva for another wonderful read, I was up all night! Cant wait for the next one!
A fan in NYC!

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Read
Review: Move over Dan Brown. I have read all of Silva's books and Dan Brown's books and prefers Browns. This book in paticular. The characters are entralling, the plat moves fast, and I love the history. I recommend this series to everyone.

Rating:
Summary: For Da Vinci Code fans
Review: I read this book, about 6 months after i read the Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. I think this is important to note as many people have compared these two books, and many copies in Australia are now sold with a sticker on it put there by the publishers that says "Better than Dan Brown or your money back".

While I know that this book was written before all the Da Vinci Code hype, I have the distinct feeling that this has become an overdone genre of sorts. If you have read books such as the Da Vinci Code, Angels and Demons, the Name of the Rose (Umberto Eco) or the Rule of Four, then chances are you are going to have a very easy time, like me predicting what will happen in the plot of the book.

Examining this book with out its context of other simular titles, i must say that there were too many characters and that the characterization itself was not as good as it could have been.

So if you are addicted to the church conspiracy books, then you may love this one, but if you are, like me rather sick of the genre, then this one is not worth the read.

Rating:
Summary: Superb thriller, one of the best.
Review: What if the Roman Catholic Church made a pact with Hitler and Nazis dirung WWII about Jews and Nazis role in their extermination. This is the story for this superb thriller, which is one of the best in its kind written in some time. Highly recommended, one of Silva's best books.

Rating:
Summary: Fun Old Fashioned Thriller
Review: Don't read too much into this book. It's an old-fashioned thriller that is difficult to put down. The premise: has a secret Catholic organization killed two priests, a nun, and a researcher? And if so, why? There are car chases, shootouts, international conspiracies, guilty secrets. The writing is pleasant and concise. The characters are somewhat stereotypical, but who cares? I couldn't put it down during a recent trip that included a 6-hour layover.

Rating:
Summary: Entertaining, If Not A Little Over-exaggerated
Review: Having never heard of Silva, it was the subject matter-that of Mossad intrigue coupled with vatican politics-which got me reading this novel. Written in a highly readable manner, it has just the right amount of history woven into all the espionage.

I found the plot a little too incredible for my liking. Fictional characters are meant to be larger than life, of course. But I think Silva may have overdone things slightly. A Secretary of State that orders a hit on his pope? When the plot becomes too incredulous, it somehow loses its grip on the reader. He no longer yearns to finish the book, since anything, no matter how improbable, can happen.

Still, I found the novel pretty engaging on the whole, and particularly enjoyed the historical bits. It piques my interest enough to want to read The English Assassin and A Death In Vienna.

Rating:
Summary: Oustanding Novel, Silva is better every time
Review: From my favorite writers, Silva is the one I'm sure will never dissapointe. When others write consecutive novels in short time, usually you find one or two that are not that good. I've been to the places described by Silva in the book, some of them I went to see after reading the book. The description of the places really gives you the very clear picture of how they look like. Daniel is really a master, I wish I could write like that.

Rating:
Summary: Missing the detail and depth of a great thriller
Review: This is my second Silva book, after the captivating "Unlikely Spy", and I enjoyed it, although it wasn't as good as it could have been. The book revolves around the death of Benjaman Stern, a jewish professor investigating the Catholic church's reaction to the Nazis and the Holecaust.

Gabriel Allon is the art restorer/Mossad agent who begins the investigation and slowly picks up clues along the way. He avoids assasins, has shootouts with Italian police and slowly makes his way to the truth about the Catholic Church.

At times, the characters seem remote and distant and therefore the novel is hard to get into.

The novel does delve somewhat into the inner workings of the Catholic Church. This subject was covered much better in Dan Brown's popular "Angels and Demons."

I enjoyed "The Unlikely Spy" immensely but was only moderately impressed with this book.

Rating:
Summary: Crux vera - a crock, or not?
Review: The idea that an evil/power- mad network of clergy operating out of the Vatican was and still is able to override the interests of the authentic Catholic adherents,is,particularly for anyone involved with issues of faith, an intriguing one.It speaks to the reality, for some, of the dichotomy between one's faith and one's actions - a not uncommon conflict.Taking it to the extreme, the author grabs the reader by the figurative lapels , taking him on a harrowing ride through Rome, Venice, Switzerland and London,forcing him to pin down his own take on the Vatican's wartime record.

Rating:
Summary: not bad
Review: This is the first book by Daniel Silva that I have read. On the one hand, The Confessor has an interesting premise and plot, and is written in a competent manner. On the other hand, it suffers from being populated by a cast of supermen. That is, almost everyone in the book is some sort of high-ranking official, powerful banker, or expert assassin, etc. These characters glide over the real world, and consequently the action is almost devoid of the sort of gritty details that make a truly great book so captivating. Other reviewers have commented that this is not Silva's best work. I will probably try another Silva book such as Mark of the Assassin the next time I am looking for some light reading.