Book Review: "The Silent Man" by Alex Berenson

Written by Lisa Solod Warren
http://blogcritics.org/
Published February 06, 2009

In The Faithful Spy, Alex Berenson wrote what may be the best thriller I have ever read, and that is saying something because I gobble thrillers like some women gobble chocolate. CIA agent John Wells had been living undercover in Afghanistan for years, even converting to Islam, before he was asked to complete an unbearably complicated mission that meant betraying some of the men he had befriended. But, of course, in order to save the world, he had to do it. (Think of Wells as a sort of literary Jack Bauer.) The novel, by a seasoned New York Times reporter garnered huge praise and won the coveted Edgar Award and it was a roller coaster ride of a book that I recommended to many.

Berenson’s second novel, The Ghost War, followed quickly after, and was a slight disappointment in both writing and plot, but it was still a cut above most thrillers and served its purpose by further fleshing out the characters of both John Wells and his girlfriend and fellow agent Jennifer Exley. Once again, of course, they saved the day.

But, in this, the third installment, The Silent Man, Berenson returns with a roar. Wells, as interesting and as deeply flawed as both Jack Bauer and the new (and I think improved James Bond, as played by Daniel Craig), is now trying to exact revenge on Pierre Kowalksi (who Wells humiliated so violently in The Ghost War) a Russian mobster bent on killing him. But Kowalski winds up critically wounding Wells’ now fiancé Exley instead.

Wells goes after him and kills a lot of people but fails to get Kowalski. The Russian then decides to abort the game of cat and mouse and make peace, and somewhat redeem himself by offering Wells the only chance to foil a very complicated plot to set off a nuclear device --which is just about to detonate in or near Washington, D.C. (Any more detail would spoil your reading pleasure.)

Berenson does meticulous research but not the kind that, like Tom Clancy’s, bogs down the plot; Berenson’s research lets us know that what is happening in his book is very real and very possible and the kind of thing that could happen — which makes it all the more frightening. You get the feeling that he's not just making it up, but as they say, ripping it from the headlines.

From the opening pages, where an old Russian man dying of lung cancer is asked to do one great thing for Islam, which sets in motion a series of events that seem so innocent that, at first, the reader wonders how the author is going to pull all the pieces of the plot together, through trips to cities around the globe and a cast of fascinating characters — from two Muslim fanatics, to a gorgeous model, to a German businessman and two nuclear power plant workers and finally a Egyptian doctor with a last-minute change of conscience — Alex Berenson’s combination of reporting and research skills once again deliver a thriller of superior readability and give us another chapter in the continuing saga of John Wells, reluctant CIA operative.

This is a series you won’t want to miss. Start at the beginning and read right through.

Related Link
http://www.alexberenson.com/