Rating: 
Summary: Too much Kate Morgan, not enough Christopher Marlowe
Review: Just as no one wants to believe Elvis died sitting on the commode, no one wants to believe the great playwright Christopher Marlow died, stabbed through the eye socket during a drinking bout with a bunch of lowlife friends.
Leslie Silbert uses the Marlow murder as a hook for her modern thriller, THE INTELLIGENCER. She shifts back and forth from "modern times" to 1593, the year of Marlowe's murder. During the modern times segment, Silbert's hero, private eye Kate Morgan, is called to investigate the attempted theft of a 16th Century manuscript compiled by Thomas Phelippes who had worked for Sir Francis Walsingham, Queen Elizabeth spymaster. According to Silbert, Marlowe was a spy for Queen Elizabeth and he became embroiled in the Sir Robert Cecil, Lord Essex rivalry.
Another plot thread, during the modern sequences, has the Slade Group, an off-the books CIA company whom Morgan works for, trying to save one of their operatives, who had been tortured in an Iranian prison.
The Marlowe plot thread works well enough, but the modern-day stuff is awfully convoluted, and when Silbert tries to pull everything together, the whole thing folds like a pup tent.
If you'd like to read about the actual Marlowe murder, Silbert suggests THE RECKONING: THE MURDER OF CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE by Charles Nicholl.
Rating: 
Summary: "And Marlowe's secret life as an intelligencer began"
Review: Leslie Silbert presents a very enticing book, using two different story lines, one in England at the end of the sixteenth century and one in the present. These events are of course interrelated, making the book a very enjoyable read and allowing us to understand better what is happening in our times. It is easy to notice that Silbert has a fair amount of knowledge about the historic topic she explores and the writing in the passages set in the times of Elizabeth I is great. However, when she gets into the present day part of the book, we observe a clear deterioration in the quality of her writing.In England, 1593, Christopher Marlowe is enjoying his huge success as a play writer, but he is not only that. He is also a counterfeiter of English shillings, and a spy (intelligencer) at the queen's service. There is a war for power going on at this time to obtain the position as right hand of the queen. The contenders are Sir Robert Cecil and the Earl of Essex, and Marlowe assists Cecil in the struggle. The ploys and counter ploys that each side fabricates and puts in practice are clever and exciting enough to keep the reader interested. In the present time in London, the Baron is in the process of stealing an old manuscript that contains a crucial secret. When he loses his life in the process, Kate Morgan, a private eye in New York, is assigned to investigate his death and the reasons behind the theft. Her client, Cidro Medina, is the owner of the manuscript and wants to know what its contents and value are. Kate, much as the author herself, is not only a private detective, but also a Renaissance scholar. She explains to Medina that the writer of the manuscript, Thomas Phellipes, was a master at breaking codes, and none other than the right hand of the founder of the secret service at Marlowe's times. She then starts focusing most of her energy in deciphering the contents of the manuscript, but is diverted several times by people that are trying to steal the document for themselves. Overall, this is a very good novel, but besides the somewhat sloppy writing in the current times passages I was a little disappointed by the scarce detail given about the code breaking process. The author focuses a lot more in the action when dealing with Kate Morgan, than in explaining more thoroughly how she breaks each code. I think that if Silbert had elaborated more in this aspect she would have maintained the reader's interest at a higher level in the Morgan part of the book.
Rating:
Summary: 16th century espionage enticing the 21st century
Review: Leslie Silbert wrote a compelling novel about espionage in the 16th century and the effects it has in the 21st century.
Kate Morgan, a spy, with the Slade Group, an extention of the CIA, has been given an assignment to help decode an old manuscript for one of the Slade Groups valuable clients. No one knows what is in this manuscript but Kate's passion for Elizabethan espionage has her brain dancing.
Silbert weaves the story from 2 different time periods, showing how the actions of Christopher "Kit" Marlowe, playwright and spy, have shaped the reactions of the villians in the 21st century. The chapters switch between Marlowes world and Kate's world, and you are never truly sure who the bad guy is until the end.
What kept this from being a 5* book is that one story line seemed to just fall short. Hopefully that particular storyline will continue in her next Kate Morgan story.
Rating: 
Summary: Exciting debut novel that leaves you wanting to read more
Review: Leslie Silbert's debut "The Intelligencer" is a truly remarkable novel that manages to successfully intertwine two storylines that take place centuries apart. Fair warning - if you are not a fan of historical fiction, you might actually turn into one by the end of this book! The reason is that Silbert has done a masterful job researching and writing the portion of the story involving famous playwright Christopher Marlowe who doubles as one of England's first secret servicemen. So well written is the portion set in the 1590's that you feel you are actually there interacting with the characters. The beauty of the novel is how Silbert takes this centuries old tale and ties it together with a suspenseful present day story while delivering a huge twist at the end. How? Well without giving away anything that you wouldn't read on the dust jacket - the connection lies in a mysterious manuscript uncovered by present day private investigator/CIA undercover operative Kate Morgan. She must discover the origin of the document and what secrets its codes hold, and she must do it quickly...someone is willing to kill to uncover its secrets. Combining suspense, humor (Playwright Marlowe is unimpressed with this "new Will Shakespeare fellow") drama, and even elements of a love story, this first novel by Leslie Silbert reads as if she has been writing her entire life. Add in quite a few surprising revelations about a few of the main characters and you have a novel that will, by the end, leave you wondering how so much was packed into a relatively short book. Eagerly awaiting her next novel!
Rating:
Summary: Exciting debut novel that leaves you wanting to read more
Review: Leslie Silbert's debut "The Intelligencer" is a truly remarkable novel that manages to successfully intertwine two storylines that take place centuries apart. Fair warning - if you are not a fan of historical fiction, you might actually turn into one by the end of this book! The reason is that Silbert has done a masterful job researching and writing the portion of the story involving famous playwright Christopher Marlowe who doubles as one of England's first secret servicemen. So well written is the portion set in the 1590's that you feel you are actually there interacting with the characters. The beauty of the novel is how Silbert takes this centuries old tale and ties it together with a suspenseful present day story while delivering a huge twist at the end. How? Well without giving away anything that you wouldn't read on the dust jacket - the connection lies in a mysterious manuscript uncovered by present day private investigator/CIA undercover operative Kate Morgan. She must discover the origin of the document and what secrets its codes hold, and she must do it quickly...someone is willing to kill to uncover its secrets. Combining suspense, humor (Playwright Marlowe is unimpressed with this "new Will Shakespeare fellow") drama, and even elements of a love story, this first novel by Leslie Silbert reads as if she has been writing her entire life. Add in quite a few surprising revelations about a few of the main characters and you have a novel that will, by the end, leave you wondering how so much was packed into a relatively short book. Eagerly awaiting her next novel!
Rating:
Summary: Good characters, disappointing storyline
Review: Leslie Silbert's erudite thriller follows the investigations of two intelligence operatives working parallel cases some 400 years apart. Elizabethan playwright Christopher Marlowe, in the last month before his fatal stabbing (in May of 1593), uncovers a smuggling operation and ruffles some highly placed feathers. And in our own century, private investigator/secret agent/quondam Renaissance scholar Kate Morgan is juggling two cases, one the attempted theft of a 400-year-old packet of intelligence documents from the safe of playboy Cidro Medina, and the other an 11-million-dollar payoff by art dealer Luca de Tolomei to an Iranian intelligence officer. Of the two interlaced stories, Kate Morgan's is the more engrossing. It is not so thrilling as to keep anyone up past bedtime, and the storyline which does prompt some concern for Kate's safety peters out disappointingly in the end. The flow of the primary tale, meanwhile, is disrupted by Marlowe's story, which punctuates Kate's in roughly alternating chapters. But The Intelligencer is worth the read because it is clever and because its principal character--Kate, not Marlowe--is so well-delineated and likeable. The secondary players in Kate's universe are intriguing as well: her secret agent boss with a classics degree from Princeton, her father the senator, her dead fiance. We can look forward to learning more about them in subsequent books, as Kate is evidently intended to anchor a new series: according to the jacket blurb, the author is currently at work on a second Kate Morgan novel.
Rating: 
Summary: i would give it a lower score if that were possible
Review: Pretension without ability, ingenuity, or originality.
Buy a real book.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: Such a great idea... such a terrible book. Aside from the anachronistic language and wish fulfillment in the Marlowe plot, the history was mildly interesting. But in terms of giving life and voice to Christopher Marlowe, a sci-fi book called "Armor of Light" does a much better job.
Even so, I would have far rather spend more time with Silbert's version of Marlowe, than Silbert's poorly disguised version of herself, Kate Morgan. Ok sure, an investigator/government agent should be good at their job, but Mary S-er, Kate is an investigator/government agent/Renaissance Scholar/kick boxer/object of sexual desire of every male she meets/with a tragic romance in her past. Too perfectly perky and utterly unrealistic. I didn't want to cheer on her heroine, I wanted to slap her.
Rating:
Summary: Great Idea Surrounded by Muck
Review: Take one great idea (Marlowe) and mix it up with tired, formula thriller elements and you get this book. The writing is pedestrian, the characters stock and the pacing uneven. Nice cover, though.
Rating: 
Summary: It's too bad...
Review: that, as at least one other reviewer mentioned, the protagonist is over the top and predictable. It really ruined for me what was an interesting and exciting story. I got tired of reading about perfect, too good to be true Kate Morgan and couldn't stomach finishing the book. My willing suspension of disbelief really hit the limit of willingness after she had quickly cracked several codes, admitted to being a kickbox expert/instructor, used the same type of rare gun for target practice that killed a professor and just happened to be found by a girl in a local pond when she stepped on it, AND was a fan years before of the very same gentleman cat burglar who was killed in the opening scene, (this is just a small sampling of conincidences and talents to easily deal with events in the story). Coincidences are ok, however, too many, just like cooks, can ruin a plot. A more believable, more human protagonist would have made this book a 5 star. And by the way... despite what the "esteemed" author reviewers say, this is no Da Vinci Code.
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