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Title: The Mark of the Assassin by Daniel Silva ISBN: 0449225313 Publisher: Fawcett Books Pub. Date: March, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.59
Rating: 5
Summary: Power, politics and intrigue - a recipe for a great read
Comment: A good friend introduced me to Daniel Silva with his first book, The Unlikely Spy. While that was a fictionalized account of how the Allies deceived Hitler as to the location of the D Day landing, this is pure fiction. Or is it? A CIA operative who has a strong moral code and a highly competent professional assassin who serves a secret group made up of the worlds movers and shakers are destined throughout the pages of the book to end up in a confrontation that ends up raising more questions than it settles. Entertaining writing, fast paced action, believable characters and enough allusion to actual people or events to keep you wondering where the fiction blends with the present day. It's a dangerous world out there; especially if you are letting Daniel Silva describe it to you.
Rating: 2
Summary: Decent, but not worth the hype
Comment: Clearly this book was intended to coast on the attendant hype of Daniel Silva's acclaimed debut novel, The Unlikely Spy. I haven't read that book, so I won't go into comaparisons, but, viewed on its own merits, The Mark of the Assassin is a decent book, that probably should have been a lot better. The characters are exactly the sort of people you'd expect to inhabit this sort of book; the right-thinking CIA operative, his smart, tough attorney wife, the rumpled CIA spymaster, the slightly dotty, sixtysomething Republican President (who reminded me of a similar character in the movie Clear and Present Danger, the manipulative White House Chief of Staff, the shadowy, Christian conservative defense contractor, and on and on and on... no surprises there. Silva's writing style, though, is clean and economical; it reminded me of Frederick Forsyth. And he does come up with one memorable character: international assassin Jean-Paul Delaroche, code name "October". I didn't buy his techniques all of the time, but his motivations and character quirks were never less than convincing. All told, an unspectacular second effort.
Rating: 3
Summary: Fails to Leave a Mark
Comment: 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.
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Title: The Marching Season by Daniel Silva ISBN: 044900211X Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: January, 2000 List Price(USD): $7.50 |
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Title: The Kill Artist: A Novel by Daniel Silva ISBN: 0449002128 Publisher: Fawcett Books Pub. Date: 26 February, 2002 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: The Unlikely Spy by Daniel Silva ISBN: 0449002640 Publisher: Fawcett Books Pub. Date: February, 1998 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: The English Assassin by Daniel Silva ISBN: 0399148515 Publisher: Putnam Pub Group Pub. Date: 04 March, 2002 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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Title: The Confessor by Daniel Silva ISBN: 0399149724 Publisher: Putnam Pub Group Pub. Date: 24 February, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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