THE SILENT MAN
Alex Berenson
Putnam
Thriller
ISBN: 9780399155383
Alex Berenson has been on my A-list of authors since I read the first few pages of THE FAITHFUL SPY, his debut novel that introduced John Wells, a maverick CIA agent who is neither too tough nor too smart. Wells instead is believable; he is dogged and determined, able to climb over the debris of his mistakes and keep on going in pursuit of his goal. These qualities hold him in good stead in THE SILENT MAN, Berenson’s third novel.
THE SILENT MAN proceeds along a couple of parallel tracks. The first concerns a plot by Islamist terrorists to steal a pair of nuclear bombs from what passes for a secured Russian storage facility. Berenson reveals the depth of his talent here, as his attention to small, real-world details is second to none. There is one passage that deals with the proffer of an orange as a peace offering that one might slide over on the way to a meatier point in the narrative. Yet the inclusion of this vignette speaks volumes concerning the dark misfortune of Russian society and provides a subtle tinge to what is occurring in the story.
There is another passage in which Berenson describes the grimness of the Black Sea, contrasting it with the Mediterranean, its more attractive and successful sister. History does not unravel wholly by happenstance; those geography classes that we all slept through in grade school could still teach us much. Berenson’s narrative regarding the theft of the bombs, their transport and the ultimate fate of the people who carry it out unfolds gradually, though not slowly by any means.
The other plot track concerns Wells, who most recently dragged the world back from the brink of an American-Chinese conflict in Berenson’s last novel, THE GHOST WAR. When Wells and his fiancée are targeted by a brutal and effective attack on the streets of Washington, D.C., Wells seeks a bloody revenge. Resisting the efforts of his CIA handlers to rein him in, he cuts a bloody swath across Eastern Europe but only succeeds in warning his quarry away. In a stunning and ironic turn, however, Wells suddenly finds that he must make a deal with the devil, calling off his plan of revenge in order to obtain the information that he and the CIA need to prevent a terrorist attack upon the highest levels of the United States government.
Both Wells and the terrorists find themselves in a race against time as Wells desperately tracks the path of an instrument of destruction while those intent on using it can almost feel Wells’s breath on their necks. Their race, both toward and against destruction, leads to a climax that even the most jaded thriller reader will not soon forget.
Berenson continues to meet and exceed the craftsmanship that he exhibited in THE FAITHFUL SPY. Neither Wells nor his adversaries are too smart or too lucky; both experience bad, real-world breaks that add to the suspense that Berenson injects into every page along the way, challenging anyone who cracks the binding on THE SILENT MAN to stop reading. And while it is a complete work in itself, Berenson leaves just enough loose ends dangling at its conclusion to make the wait for the next dose of Wells seem interminable.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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