The Unlikely Spy - Hardcover

DANIEL SILVA

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0297817906 ISBN 13: 9780297817901

Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1996

Synopsis

red cloth cover w/gold imprint lettering on spine, yellow, white, red & black dustjacket wt: 860 g, dimen: 24 cm x16 cm x 4.5 cm, 451 pgs

About this title

Review:

In this debut novel, veteran journalist Silva mines the reliable territory of World War II espionage to produce a gripping, historically detailed thriller. In early 1944 the Allies were preparing their invasion of Normandy; critical to the invasion's success was an elaborate set of deceptions--from phony radio signals to bogus airfields and barracks--intended to keep Hitler in the dark about when and where the Allied troops would arrive. Catherine Blake is the beautiful, ruthless spy who could bring the whole charade crashing down; Alfred Vicary is the brilliant but bumbling professor Churchill has tapped to protect the operation. Along with a teeming cast of other characters, real and fictional, they bring the chase to a furious and satisfying climax.

From Kirkus Reviews:

Television producer Silva delivers a fine, old-fashioned WW II debut thriller that pits an English don against Admiral Wilhelm Canaris's Abwehr--in a deadly contest of wits on the eve of the Allied invasion of occupied Europe. Recruited for the War Office's MI5 by his friend Winston Churchill, Alfred Vicary (a shrewd history professor who was badly wounded as a behind-the-lines courier during WW I) is assigned early in 1944 to a hush-hush effort to mislead Hitler's intelligence services concerning D-day's primary target. While the bachelor academic employs captured German spies to transmit disinformation to Berlin, radio intercepts confirm that a sleeper agent has been activated to determine where the amphibious assault will come ashore. Despite a discouraging lack of leads, Vicary sets about tracking down the hitherto unsuspected operative (a murderous young woman long established in London under the name Catherine Blake) and the Wehrmacht veteran parachuted in to give her a hand. Dogged police work eventually puts counterespionage watchers on Catherine's trail but not before she beds a susceptible US Navy officer. Aware that the besotted Yank's knowledge could put SHAEF's greatest secret in enemy hands, Vicary coolly blackmails him into cooperating in the ongoing deception. Before he can roll up the network, however, Catherine's alert accomplice verifies that MI5 is on to them. Leaving a slew of bodies in their wake, the two bolt for a U-boat waiting offshore. Although the fugitives are prevented from escaping the British Isles or reporting what they know, Vicary is found wanting by his superiors. Only after Allied forces are marching through France to the Rhineland does Vicary learn that he played a vital role in an endgame more duplicitous than any the department's workaday treacheries had prepared him for. A fine, twisty tale of military intelligence, notable for graceful prose, credibly motivated characters, and evocative detail. (First printing of 150,000; Book-of-the-Month Club alternate selection; $150,000 ad/promo; author tour) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0297817906
• ISBN 13: 9780297817901
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 416