The Mark of the Assassin

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 show more 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. show less

On July 17, 1996, shortly after takeoff from New York’s Kennedy International Airport, Trans World Airlines Flight 800, a Boeing 747-100 ( N93119) jetliner bound for Paris exploded over the Atlantic Ocean, killing all 230 people aboard. At the time of the incident, many believed that the Airliner had been shot from the sky by a missal fired from a boat off Long Island's shore. In 1998, when The Mark of the Assassin was copyrighted, some terror evoked by the incident lingered. Daniel Silva used that as the inciting incident for his novel having it require a malleable President Beckwith to take decisive action and allowing a corrupt politico, Chief of Staff, Paul Vandenberg and a powerful manipulative industrialist, Mitchell Elliott to show more set in action a series of assassinations which make up this thriller.
The novel has much that one would expect from a spy/thriller. There is an evil cabal of billionaires, "The Society for International Development and Cooperation;" a highly skillful assassin, Delaroche, bastard son of a KGB general; and his demi-assassin, Astrid, granddaughter of Kurt Vogel whom we met in The Unlikely Spy; allusions to real CIA actions, Operation Phoenix; and plenty of sex and violent action. What separates this from being a run-of-the-mill thriller is Silva's skill in developing characters that are believable and human. The protagonist, Michael Osbourne and his wife, Elizabeth, are portrayed sympathetically. We can understand their frustrations and pains. Even the assassins command some of our sympathy. Delaroche and Astrid are cold killers, but Delaroche is an accomplished painter and Astrid has been trapped by circumstances. The people of this novel whom we love to hate are the billionaire manipulators working to serve their own greedy ends.
Daniel Silva is a skilled craftsman and this work demonstrates his art. show less

All that's missing is a secret underground laboratory, but of course we wouldn't know about it if it was truly secret. Silva is not afraid to kill off his characters, so suspense continues to the end. A lot of people are introduced very quickly, but I was able to keep track of who was who. A commercial airplane shot down by a terrorist, an attack in a major European airport---it all felt too familiar even though it was published in 1998.

Pretty good spy thriller. I thought it had a few plot devices that were a little hard to swallow or I would have given it a 4 star. I think this was Silva's first book so I hope he gets tighter with his plotting. That is almost always what turns me off spy thriller that are suppose to be plausible, the implausible act. James Bond can get away with it because it is a cartoon, otherwise no can do.

Daniel Silva is good entertainment. If you look for a fast-paced thriller involving international terrorists, spies, intelligence agencies - look no further. I like that in a good journalist fashion he does his background research well. His books take you around the world from Washington to London, Paris, Amsterdam, Brélès, Cairo, St Maarten, Northern Canada and Mykonos.
I found the second Michael Osbourne book "The Marching Season" a few years ago in a little free library in Tbilisi. It's possible to read them as stand-alones, it did not disturb me to read the second book first, but a few things were spoiled from the first book.

Mark of the Assassin, was a good book, that could have been a lot better. The Michael Osbourne character started off kinda shaky at first, but became more like able as the book progressed. The pregnancy storyline seemed like too much, the book didn't need it, and I think it is what hurt Osbournes likeability in the beginning. Actually, the book as a whole seemed to be filled with an overload of information, a lot of it not necessary to keep the storyline going. On the other hand, the plot was very good and it really kept my attention the whole time. All in all, I will definitely go out and pick up the next book in the Osbourne series to find out where the story goes from here.

I hate to denigrate any work of Daniel Silva. However, this work is not on par with his other literary successes. Especially the Gabriel Allon series. However, the plot is quite good. An American flight is downed by a stinger missile and hell breaks out in the Middle East. The conspirators start to erase their tracks to the crime, and need the help of a soulless assassin. I remain glad I read it.