The Mark of the Assassin (edition 2003)

not as good as Unlikely Spy; too brief and most characters too weakly delineated

Seemed like a long book; but, wasn't very much actually. Book involved Washington DC political actions, money, power and ego--it seemed like every time I turned it on, somebody was getting whacked. The book postulated an international secret society that viewed itself as the global ruler and their political goals involved murder and mayhem. Hmmmm... ( )

Osbourne - not bad

First-time reading silva....good start...good story and characters and kept me turning the pages...looking forward to the next one. ( )

A fast paced mystery which starts out a bit slow (but well paced) and keeps your reading with twists and a surprise I didn't see midway through.
To be fair though, the setup alone is half the book.

The story starts with an act of terrorism. A jet liner is shot out of the sky using an land-to-air shoulder missile, the shooter is a terrorist known to the authorities who is found dead next to the empty missile tube shot in the face three times.
Three shots to the face are the mark of the assassin and CIA agent Michael Osbourne knows it - he has encountered it before while working in the field.
Michael believes that the jet liner was not shot down by Arab terrorists but by someone else and this makes him a target.
What Michael doesn't know is that a group of rich and powerful world policy manipulators have targeted him for assassination and sent the world's best assassin to do the job; an assassin who justifies his work and morality by the famous Wild West well reasoned defense of "he needed killin'".
Mix those elements with political intrigue, a wife, medical issues, international locations, twists, turns and a few surprises - and you got yourself a winning combination.

The book has well developed characters, great plotline and it kept me interested until the last, as well as a theory which is thought provoking, if nothing else.

"The Mark of the Assassin" was a good, quick read with several references to Silva's first novel "The Unlikely Spy" which I found entertaining - even though this is a separate story and has almost nothing to do with the first novel.

At the time of this review, the under the book's title it said "Gabriel Allon" in parenthesis - this is not a Gabriel Allon book. ( )