Rating: 
Summary: amazing -- exciting and clever
Review: this book blew me away. it's that rare combination of page-turner/spy thriller that actually makes you feel smarter for having read it. the way she weaves jet-set modern NYC private-investigator hijinks with brooding elizabethan england -- i couldn't put the book down. maybe it's the author's real-life PI experience...her harvard education...her good looks...whatever it is, keep your eye on leslie silbert. highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Cleverly crafted, top-notch entertainment
Review: This book is everything a thriller should be and more. Super entertaining, kept me hooked and distracted on a six-hour flight. But it's also loaded with fascinating info about Elizabethan history, spies, etc, plus cool details about intelligence matters today. Not to mention more witty, believable dialogue than any thriller I've read this year. I'm surprised a first time novelist pulled off such an intricately crafted, massively enjoyable read.
Rating:
Summary: High Brow Thriller
Review: This books combines a great story from the past with a great story from the present, moving back and forth and keeping you extremely entertained along the way. Of course, you know that two stories will intersect, but you don't know how until the very end! The DaVinci Code had parts that were simply unbelievable and, it turns out, not factually accurate. You believe everything you are reading in Leslie Silbert's first novel. She cleary knows her stuff and creates a very interesting character in female Private Investigator Kate Morgan. Highly recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: A WASTE OF TIME
Review: This is a great idea, badly executed. I was very interested in the historical mystery of Marlowe, but the writing is so awful it clouds the drama. There are so many good books out there, this one is NOT worth your time.
Rating:
Summary: DaVinci Code meets Alias¿but better
Review: This is a smashingly-good, action-packed first novel. It makes great use of a now-familiar gambit: unraveling the secrets of a mysterious historical document to avert present-day consequences. Writing with much wit and invention (as well as knowledge and authority), Silbert spins two interconnected tales: one centered on Christopher Marlowe and Elizabethan espionage, the other focused on CIA undercover operative Kate Morgan. Linked by a mysterious manuscript, the two stories build to a surprising but satisfying resolution that remains well concealed until the final pages. And don't miss Silbert's addendum, which explains which of the 16th century are based on historical events.Every element of this gripping adventure shines, from its suspenseful, globetrotting plot to its nicely rounded characters. Silbert is a rare discovery, and one hopes that she plans to produce more historical-oriented mysteries with the same skill and energy that propel this excellent debut.
Rating: 
Summary: Really good story - hard to put down
Review: This was a really well written story, with amazing character development of so many different characters. She made you feel these historical people. She has almost everything right.
The only little details that aren't quite right come where she talks about things that aren't historical. For example:
- Kate Morgan doesn't get jet lag, and some small details about traveling aren't quite right. I fly all over all the time, so I notice that.
- The tranquilizers act too fast. It takes a while for an injected tranquilizer to circulate. The only way to get people down almost instantaneously is if it's injected into the side of the neck into the carotid arteries.
- Kate removes the bullets from the villains gun and he doesn't notice. I've handled guns, and there is a big difference in weight. Better strategy would be to remove the magazine and inject epoxy into the magazine so it won't feed or into the chamber, to block the chamber.
- It isn't possible to track an under-the-skin little chip from a satellite. Sorry to say. Wish it would work. You can read them from maybe a 30 meters or so. They would have lost her.
I really liked this story.
Rating:
Summary: First-rate entertainment
Review: This was an excellent page-turner. Looking forward to the next one from this author. She does a great blend of fact and fiction. And unlike other thrillers where the mystery involves a centuries-old secret, like the Da Vinci Code and Rule of Four, you actually get to see the historical figures in action, instead of just hearing modern characters talk about them. Half the chapters (every other one) are set in 1593, so the present-day heroine is investigating the mystery surrounding Christopher Marlowe's unsolved murder, while in the sixteenth-century chapters, you see Marlowe tackling his last intelligence assignment in the days leading up to his death. Ms. Silbert does a great job of juxtaposing intriguing parallels, showing similarities and differences between espionage and politics then and now, i.e. you see spies meeting up with spymasters, and illicit arms deals taking place centuries apart, in back to back chapters. If it were possible, I would have given this book four and a half stars, because it's not perfect. For a first time author, it is very impressive, but I think it needed more streamlining, perhaps fewer characters. I put it down halfway through when I went away on business, and couldn't remember who was plotting against who a week later, and had to backtrack a bit. Overall though, it's a fun, educational, very entertaining read.
Rating:
Summary: Highly entertaining
Review: This was great. I read it in one day. Completely satisfied my desire for escapist fun, but you also learn a lot. Especially about the Elizabethan playwright and spy, Christopher Marlowe. I also loved the present-day heroine, Kate Morgan. She's witty and engaging, with a fascinating area of expertise: curiosity and the pursuit of secrets and forbidden knowledge in the Renaissance. Can't wait to see what historical mystery she tackles next. Overall, I'd say this was my favorite thriller of the past several years. It's highly original and inventive, and thankfully, unpredictable...I hate it when you can spot an ending a mile away, but this one, not at all. I could not recommend it more highly.
Rating:
Summary: Alias wanna be
Review: To compare this novel to the Da Vinci Code, does a great disservice to Mr. Brown. I wanted to like this book, I truly did, but reading this book was a labor in of itself. The best part of reading this novel was when I finished it. That way I could move on to something more enjoyable. The author, Ms Silbert, believes she is more skilled than she is. The book lacked any true suspense and the ended was extremely anticlimactic. My major beef with this book is that she describes how the 1600 century spy novel that is found is all in code, yet she gives no examples of what they were and how to break them. I believe if Mr. Brown were to have written this book, he would have shown one of the pages of the coded book and how the code was broken. Ms Silbert did none of this. She instead tried to focus on how clever and stylist her characters are. Give me substance over style any day. It would appear that they are going to try to make a series out of the main character. I'd rather watch Alias on TV then read another book in this series. At least the TV show doesn't try to be more intelligent than it is.
Rating:
Summary: PI parlays experience into excellent thriller!
Review: When I heard the author on the radio talking about her real-life experiences as a PI, her ex-CIA boss, and U.S. attorney father, I decided to give this book a try. I like authenticity, and too many thrillers are painfully over the top...you know, so implausible you roll your eyes. But this one, wow! I loved it. It's got a very authentic, informative feel, but is also inventive, fresh and exciting. Kept me up till dawn! The Marlowe chapters come to life so vividly. Really enjoyed Marlowe's banter with Tom Walsingham and the tavern whore, as well as the way he was inspired to start writing "Hero and Leander." And learning so much about the Elizabethan underworld--spies and spymasters, con men, codes, ciphers, etc was fascinating. Very cool how the present day chapters paralleled those set in the past--you get to see Marlowe and Kate get their espionage assignments one after the other, begin them, get in danger, etc, in alternating chapters. And I loved Kate, found her more likable and believable than other mystery/spy heroines I've come across, probably because she's modeled so closely on the author... Whose ex-CIA boss endorsed the book so glowingly that I trust the PI know-how, international intrigue, and intelligence aspects, which made the whole reading experience much more fun for me. Lastly, I was thrilled that the endings to both storylines were unpredictable, clever and witty--for me, totally satisfying. Which is so rare in this genre. And when you're done, definitely stick around for the author's note. It tells you how most events from the sixteenth-century chapters are based on historical evidence, and explains something really interesting about the structure of the novel.
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