The Unlikely Spy

After reading all 22 books of the Gabriel Allon series and when done with #22 I was having a bit of withdrawals and for me have to say the Allon books just got better and better when reading them all in chronological order. Then I learned Daniel Silva's had written his 1st book 5 years before the 1st Allon book and thought good another Silva book to read. I was not disappointed in anyway since I love his writing style. This book is a standalone novel about WW2 and how the Nazi and German spies infiltrated England before the beginning of the war and the stories goes from there. Lots of interesting characters both British and German involved and for me it was a page turner especially towards the end. Great read! My sister went to a meet and greet for Silva's #23 book "The Collector" close to where we live and was able to get a free book and found Mr. Silva a very interesting man during his talk to the crowd at a community center auditorium. A couple of hundred people showed up and it was SRO. Lucky me now I get to read his latest Allon book since finishing "The Unlikely Spy." It has gotten many very good reviews on Amazon. Really look forward to reading it.

Silva is "the real deal." His writing is outstanding in all aspects and will appeal to serious readers who will appreciate his craft .

Unlikely Spy has some slower spots and, perhaps, a bit too much description of the drab and dreary of London after the Blitz and during the blackouts and of the have and have nots in England and Germany during WWII. But, it earns 4 stars from the character development, head-spinning changes of direction and overall pace of the story line as an Oxford don becomes spymaster in MI-5. Enjoyed the journey and found the book to be time well-spent.

"The Unlikely Spy" is a very good WWII espionage spy thriller. It's long - 725 pages, but rarely does it drag, and most of the time the story is interesting, intriguing, well-crafted, and often compelling. There are only a few instances of a solution to a dilemma faced by one of the characters that is too pat or too contrived (a problem often found in novels such as this). The characters, for the most part, remain true to their personality, training and mission.Only the two main German spies (Horst and Anna) fall out of their roles glaringly one or two times: one such moment is the unfortunate "street" fight with a local Brit that Horst gets himself into; the other is when Anna begins to doubt herself, her mission, herself, and begins to gain a conscience. These two German spies are clever, well-trained and effective in what they do, and even when they are humanly inconsistent, they are convincing and exceptional. One does not root for them, but one does rather admire them. Anna, in particular, is complex and complicated, a beautiful woman with a somewhat tortured past. But she has been trained to kill and kill she does.The one American (Peter) is true to his character almost unfailingly, as are the British main characters, especially the very well-drawn likeable Vicary and the more mysterious cad Boothby.The real-life historical figures, Eisenhower, Churchill and all the usual German demons (like Canaris, Himmler, and Hitler) play big to small roles, as is appropriate for the story, except for the main German background player, Major Vogel who runs Anna, whom he placed in Britain in 1938, 6 years before she was needed by the 3rd Reich to unravel allied plans for D-Day in early 1944.It's all about D-Day, and this story proved a timely read here in June 2009 during the days leading up to and after the recent 65th anniversary ceremony celebrating the costly but successful Allied invasion of France in 1944. This story revolves around German and Allied hand-wringing over where and when the Allied invasion would occur. Would the Germans discover that it would occur at Normandy --- or as the Allies wanted them to believe - at Calais? That is the entire nexus of the story.In the end, I liked this book better than (though it is greatly different from) Michael Dobbs' books about Churchill in the same time period (see "Never Surrender"). Silva apparently doesn't have the pressure to try to teach history, except as it is incidentally important to his story. Then he gets it right. But make no mistake: this is fiction - as are all of Dobbs' works.The plot is complicated (but not too complex), and it is filled with engaging, distinctive characters. I was amazed to find myself on page 500-something, absorbed and engaged in the story. Silva does a reasonably good job writing women, though his forte is men.I was struck with how this story is an excellent mix of plain old police detective work and subtle ruthless intelligence work. Silva mixes the two very, very well.I think it is probably about 150 pages too long. What makes it long is Silva's penchant for a great amount of background detail - all interesting, mind you, but nonetheless perhaps not so much is needed to move the story forward. It is also surprisingly "neutral" as to which side holds the cards, brains and skill - with plenty of blunders on both sides.In the last ½ of the book there is a plenitude of bloody, appalling and mindless killings and murders, as the 2 German spies fight to escape MI-5 and the entire Allied intelligence apparatus bearing down on them after their cover is blown. Once you get over Silva's occasional invented and too-pat circumstantial events that actually help the Brits run down these spies, the story picks up momentum and becomes a page turner. Both sides make countless errors and missteps. Just because you want the Brits to win out, does not imbue them with infallibility.The book's major flaw, I think, is the somewhat pedestrian and not-very-creative finale or ultimate resolution. I would have hoped that the last 125 pages would live up to the first 600 pages in creativity and cleverness, but they did not. While not exactly disappointing, the conclusion left me wanting something a little better. It is for this reason that I do not give this book a 5 rating.All-in-all, if you like WWII espionage historical fiction, this book is a great read. It's brutal, realistic, and a fun romp in 1944 England and Germany, great for vicarious re-living (or first-living) of that marvelous time in our history. This is a great book to read on a holiday, on an airplane, or when you are free to indulge 2 or 3 days to escape into the greatest era of old-fashioned espionage -- World War II. This is not the economical, terse beauty that Alan Furst might write (see his "Spies of Warsaw"), but nonetheless it is very, very good. I give it a 4+.

As advertized

Very well written. But still - solving "a riddle, wrapped in a puzzle, inside an enigma" is quite frustrating if you find that the solution is just more false promises and another double cross.

I have been a fan of Daniel since reading my first Gabriel Allon thriller some right years ago. Silver's stories are well thought out and keep your interest throughout the book.

Very intriguing, but the beginning was overwhelming with characters, places, times. But at last it settled into an understandable rhythm.I enjoyed it but not as much as some of his later books.

Good book as expected of Daniel Silva🤗

He has it all! Whatever Daniel Silva writes is always utterly absorbing, with his careful description of the characters and the historical period you get so absorbed you feel that you are shadowing the characters.I have finished all his books, always thought that the Gabriel Allon series was unbeatable but this "stand-alone" novel is simply amazing no matter how many of that sort you had already read. Get on with writing Gabriel Silva!

A fine combination of facts and fictional possibilities with a reasonably accurate description of life in England in 1944. Some confusion over English and American verbal expressions e.g. For a long time (Eng) In a long time (American)

Da maneira cativante como foi escritro

I have been enjoying reading this book . the story is very captivating and the characters interesting all with the back drop of the second world war. One big problem the last pages of the book are missing and the printers have mistakenly added the beginning again. Very frustrating and disappointing!!