Rating: 
Summary: Generally enjoyable novel for the beach or a dreary afternoo
Review: Good story idea with interesting twists. However, it predictable, with only a few characters fully developed. The ending (epilog, really) is too similar to too many other novels and TV stories-a wrap-up that cannot be told any other way. I prefer an ending that doesn't need an explanatory wrap-up.
However, it is fun and worthy of spending time with it.
Rating:
Summary: Truth should always be guarded by a bodyguard of lies.
Review: At the November 1943 conference in Teheran between Roosevelt, Stalin and Churchill, the British Prime Minister made a remark that become a classic epigram: In war-time, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies. The Unlikely Spy is about one of those lies.
Of all the secrets on both sides during World War II, none was so jealously protected nor so covetously sought after than the time and place of the Allied invasion of Europe. In his first novel, Daniel Silva, executive producer of CNN's Washington-based public affairs programming, has spun a top-notch yarn about protecting that secret and deceiving the Third Reich. This story probably has more deceptions within deceptions than any espionage novel since John leCarré wrote The Spy Who Came in From the Cold some thirty-five years ago.
It doesn't matter that we now know the invasion was successful and the Allies won the war. Silva uses his newspaper and television journalist experience to first entice and then propel the reader from happy, care-free optimistic pre-war days in America, England and Germany to the eve of the invasion. The journey begins in the North Shore homes of New York's very well to-do families and the campuses of England's finest colleges.
Silva has stocked this historical novel with at least twenty characters who have to be kept track of. This is a challenge for the reader almost as complex as that facing former history professor Alfred Vicary who carries the burden of deceiving the Germans with "a careful blend of fact and fiction, of truth and painstakingly veiled lies." Vicary was recruited straight off the campus by Churchill who lay in his tub at Chartwell while the academic removed his tweed jacket and, reluctantly, sat down on the toilet. In Germany, a worried Hitler chairs meetings of his intelligence chiefs, including Himmler, to review efforts and increase the pressure on field agents to uncover the when and where of the invasion. Kurt Vogel, a lawyer destined to sit on Germany's Supreme court before Hitler scuttled the rule of law, is Vicary's opposite number, charged with learning the date and place of the invasion. He works directly for Admiral Canaris, head of German Military Intelligence, but is made to understand he can be hung with the same piano wire Himmler has planned for the admiral if his efforts fail. Vicary and Vogel never meet eye to eye but like great chess masters they put their pieces into play with cunning and are always thinking multiple moves ahead. Vogel is off to a fast start because he sent the sensuous and murderous Catherine Blake into England under deep cover before hostilities broke out. Vicary's efforts to catch up are made even more difficult by his own superior, Brigadier Sir Basil Boothy, who believes a counter-intelligence professional should be in charge rather than another of the PM's university recruits.
Silva has crafted a superlative tale peopled with real-life giants who strode across the pages of history during World War II and fictional characters who may be based on lesser known personalities. This tautly crafted spy story demonstrates proficient skills that will leave readers looking forward to Silva's second book which is said to be in production.
Rating: 
Summary: Well-written, easy to read, utterly predictable.
Review: Just how in the world did the Allies ever pull off the
Normandy landing? With so many spies, double agents, deep
cover agents, and traitors eager to get the straight dope to the Fuhrer, are we really sure we're not living in the "Fatherland"? "The Unlikely Spy" slinks through very familiar territory, from "The Eye of the Needle" to "Where
Eagles Dare" with a side trip to Le Carre land thrown and an optional visit to "Enigma". From the first attention-grabbing brutal murder, through the
obligatory sex scenes, to the stop them at any cost!
finale, the reader encounters the expected.
There are, however, worse ways to spend an evening than curled up with a beautiful spy, tenacious British cop, handsome American architect/officer/patsy, and the other usual suspects. We may know them all a little too well, but, we'll always have the Pas de Calais.
Rating: 
Summary: Stunning Debut
Review: An engrossing and well written page turner, with complex but logical and believable plot and characters.
Well researched and detailed in the tradition of Follet and Le Carre. A terrific book.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent, fast moving and elegantly scripted
Review: The author weaves a multi-track spy thriller with care and apparent consideration for the reader.
The plot is direct, credible and attractive - the characters are full bodied and alive, the accuracy of the environment is thorough without the minutae of Clancy but also more physical that Le Carre.
Altogether an excellent book.
Rating:
Summary: Taut, thrilling spy story
Review: Mr. Silva has produced a grand World War II spy thriller in the tradition of Ken Follett and others. He has obviously done his research well and that is reflected in the gripping, page turning suspense.
His characters are believable and, even in the case of the spies, sympathetic.
Well done, Mr. Silva; I am eagerly awaiting your next effort.
Rating:
Summary: An "Eye of the Needle" clone - and a good one
Review: There are definite elements of Ken Follett's "Eye of the Needle" in Daniel Silva's "The Unlikely Spy". The most obvious is that Follett's bumbling spy was named Godliman, Silva's is named Vicary. But there are differences too - and those differences make Silva's book better than Follett's.Most of the novels of this type follow a formula - Nazi spy, planted in England, uncovers the real facts about the Normandy invasion, and the brave, muddle-headed British intelligence officer must stop the spy before s/he gives it all away. Silva's novel follows this formula fairly well, but there's a very well-written story surrounding it. Silva's plot is extremely detailed, and there are puzzles within puzzles, and plots within plots. Alfred Vicary is the proverbial (and in some cases literal) absent-minded professor, who shows a surprising streak of ruthlessness when it really matters; Catherine Blake is the Third Reich's ultimate weapon, who would rather not do what she's been doing for the last five years, but has no choice in the matter. These are the two main characters in a very well-done WWII spy novel. This is Silva's first novel, and if it's any indication of things to come, he has a glorious career ahead of him. I do hope he doesn't restrict himself to this genre, though - if he does his books will grow very stale very fast.
Rating:
Summary: An Unlikely Hero
Review: I am an avid Daniel Silva fan, but my experience has been with the Gabriel Allon series. I picked up the Unlikely Spy over the D-Day weekend, and was engrossed by Silva's ability to draw me back 60 years. The story revolves around Alfred Vicary, a history professor cum intelligence operative who is drawn into tracking down a German spy and accomplices who is attempting to ascertain the pending invasion plans of France by the Allies. What ensues is a classic spy story that held me captive to the last page. I heartily recommend it for fans of early Greg Iles.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant!
Review: Author Daniel Silva has done his usual wonderful job with the book THE UNLIKELY SPY. THE UNLIKELY SPY is an old-fashioned thriller, in the vein of the great spy novels of earlier decades. Set principally in England during World War II--with detours to New York and Nazi Germany--it is a gripping story which keeps the reader turning the pages to see what will happen next. The plot is brilliant in it conception, in its breadth, and in the execution. Silva does a good job conveying what life must have been like in London during those hard years of World War II. His premise is that the Allies had to mislead the Nazis, carefully and deliberately, to misdirect them from expecting the invasion of Normandy, this being "misinformation" in the purest sense of the word. This novel focuses on the British Secret Service (precursor of the service in which the fictional James Bond is said to have been a member) and on exactly how they could structure this deception. There is a great deal of plausible detail, and some cliffhanging moments in Silva's telling. His research is awe-inspiring. Long as the book runs, there are a few subplots and earlier clues that remain unaddressed at its conclusion--or, alternatively, these are tied up too simplistically, too off-handedly, too incompletely, to do anything but cheat the engaged reader. Still, these few blips are insignificant in a work of this magnitude. Daniel Silva has proven that his talents are as good as anybody writing today.
Rating:
Summary: Tremendous
Review: A few years ago I flew out to Miami and had some time to kill so I browsed the airport bookstore and picked this up. Started reading in the Terminal and couldnt put it down throught the whole flight. It is a tremendous espionage novel. Silva is extremely talented and he wrote a fantastic book.
I wont give it away, just going to tell you if you like espionage novels then go pick it up. Its Tremendous!!
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