The Unlikely Spy, by Daniel Silva

February 22, 2009 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: book review, Daniel Silva, espionage, Fiction, recommendation, Thriller 

Daniel Silva is a great writer of thrillers of espionage. His writings remind me of the early John Le Carré. In this book, The Unlikely Spy, his debut novel, he looks behind the curtain of The Unlikely Spy, daniel Silva secrecy surrounding espionage during World War II, and uses it as the basis for a great and exciting as well as innovative spy thriller. He shows that, as Le Carré, he has a lot of knowledge about spy craft as well as the workings of anti-espionage organizations.

In The Unlikely Spy Silva deals with the Allies’ effort to protect perhaps the greatest secrets of all during World War II – the location of the planned D-Day landings in France. Silva’s story has an innovative plot with roots both in Nazi-Germany’s spy machine ran by Admiral Canaris and a huge counter-intelligence effort, involving both the American and the British intelligence services, and having been cleared all the way up to Prime Minister Winston Churchill!

The stakes on both sides are extremely high: a successful invasion does not assure victory, but defeat on the beaches will prolong the war and, very possibly, lose it. Much hinges on what the enemy knows about the undertaking. “In wartime,” Winston Churchill wrote, “truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies.”

The main story in The Unlikely Spy takes place in 1943, but with excursions to events at previous points in time leading up to the key events. In 1943, Britain’s counter-intelligence service MI5 has identified and captured virtually all of the German spies sent to the country so far. Some has been hanged; some has been turned and are used to feed back carefully crafted misinformation to their controllers in Germany.

But now the Germans awaken a sleeping agent to get more intelligence about the upcoming British invasion. And when the British learn about this, they realize that one piece of correct information may destroy the house of cards – based on endless lies – they have so carefully constructed. The sleeper-agent is Catherine Blake, a very beautiful and seductive agent who began her entry into Britain with the cold-blooded killing of a young female painter. As she comes closer and closer to penetrating the Allied operation, code-named Operation Mulberry, the action accelerates. Will the invasion plan succeed with this a brilliant agent at work? Can she be stopped in time?

Silva’s characters are strong. Along with a teeming cast of other characters, real and fictional, they bring the chase to a furious and satisfying climax. And the final plot twist is original, yet logical.
The Unlikely Spy is a strong and promising debut book.

Order Daniel Silva’s The Unlikely Spy from amazon UK. See the other Daniel Silva thrillers as well at amazon UK!

See more reviews of books by Daniel Silva at Leserglede.com!

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