Product Description

From the #1 New York Times– bestselling author comes another remarkable novel of espionage today— and right around the corner.

Alex Berenson’s The Faithful Spy was declared “one of the best spy stories ever told” (The Wall Street Journal), and The Ghost War “mesmerizing . . . an extraordinary achievement. Wells is a complex blend of smarts, scars, cynicism and wile. And the book’s imaginings seem not so much ‘ripped from the headlines’ as eerily destined to be set in type for tomorrow’s” (The News & Observer). Berenson’s third novel, however, is his most masterful yet.

It isn’t easy to steal warheads from the heart of Russia’s nuclear complex in Mayak. It requires a great deal of money, coordination, ingenuity, and sleight-of-hand, and just a touch of luck. But if you’re determined enough, anything is possible.

It’s been a rough few years for CIA agent John Wells. The undercover work in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the attack on the United States, the Chinese plot that could have led to war. Wells is exhausted, and his nights filled with disturbing dreams. But he knows he has no time for that. He has made many enemies, and the world won’t stay quiet for long.

Nevertheless, Wells is not prepared for what is about to happen. He and his colleague—and fiancée—Jennifer Exley are driving into work when traffic comes to a standstill, due to accidents on both bridges into Washington. A pretty big coincidence, he thinks, beginning to get a bad feeling—a feeling that only gets worse when he spots the red motorcycle zooming up between cars toward him. Before the day is over, several people will be dead or severely injured, Exley among them, and Wells will be a man possessed.

The attackers are Russian, and it is to Russia that Wells must follow the trail. He finds what he’s looking for—but also a great deal more. A plan of almost unimaginable consequences is in motion, and Wells has no idea if he has discovered it in time. The last few years have been rough indeed, but the next few weeks will be much, much worse.

Real-world threats, authentic details, a scenario as dramatic as it is chillingly plausible, Alex Berenson’s new novel is another “timely reminder of the extremely precarious way we live now” (The Washington Post).

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #23163 in Books
• Published on: 2009-02-10
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 432 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780399155383
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
Bestseller Berenson's well-plotted and thoughtful third thriller to feature CIA agent John Wells (after The Ghost War) finds Wells and his fellow CIA agent and fiancée, Jenny Exley, living happily together in Washington, D.C., content to devote themselves to fighting the forces of evil. One morning, while stuck in traffic on their way to CIA headquarters, men on motorcycles attack them in their minivan. Exley suffers a serious gunshot injury in an act of revenge by minions of Pierre Kowalski, an enemy from an earlier book. Meanwhile, jihadists bent on destroying America steal two small atomic bombs. These extremely clever villains, per Berenson's style, aren't mad dog idiots but credible characters with reasons, at least from their own perspective, to be doing the great evil they're planning. Fast and furious when it needs to be, this is a welcome addition to an excellent series. Berenson won an Edgar for his first novel, The Faithful Spy. (Feb.)
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From Booklist
John Wells saves the world for the third time in as many books, but we wouldn’t have it any other way. Islamist jihadists manage to steal some fissionable material out of a remote Russian weapons depot, intending to build a crude atom bomb to unleash on the great Satan. Meanwhile, Wells’ love interest is nearly killed by an old enemy, sending our dour, driven hero eastward on a one-man mission of vengeance, even as the terrorists head steadily westward with their awful freight. Wells has lost some of his promise as a devout Muslim action hero (The Faithful Spy, 2006), an intriguing premise completely jettisoned here. But while Wells has grown two-dimensional, the supporting cast of holy warriors and their reluctant assistants (such as Gregor, a pathetically hulking weak link on the weapons depot’s payroll) are fleshed out and motivated far more than your typical baddies. Oddly enough, it is the terrorists’ desperate nuclear caper, plausibly detailed and convincingly problematic, that keeps the reader caring, and guessing, until the end and that keeps this series in the first rank of international thrillers. --David Wright

About the Author
As a reporter for The New York Times, Alex Berenson has covered topics ranging from the occupation of Iraq to the flooding of New Orleans to the travails of the pharmaceutical industry. His novel The Faithful Spy won the 2007 Edgar Award for best first novel. A 1994 graduate of Yale University with degrees in history and Economics.

Customer Reviews

For John Wells, it's back to terrorism of the Middle Eastern variety...
Berenson's new novel begins in Russia, with a plot to steal a nuclear weapon. But make no mistake: we're back to the territory covered in The Faithful Spy, i.e., Islamic terrorism -- only with higher stakes.

Like Berenson's earlier novels (particularly Faithful Spy), The Silent Man is a fast, enjoyable, and even compelling read. True to form, this narrative is steeped in facts and circumstances that are the product of either thorough research or a gift for imagining plausible detail. -- Berenson is, after all, a reporter.

What's sobering about this book is the reminder of something many of us seem all too eager to forget, i.e., that there are fanatics out there who hate the U.S. to such a degree that they will gladly devote their lives and dedicate their deaths to our destruction. At the same time, Berenson is no conservative -- and I say that not just because he works for The New York Times, but because here and there in the narrative, his views on the Iraq war and U.S. policy in the Middle East come to the surface; and they are not complimentary to the Bush administration -- even though President Bush is never mentioned by name.

Still, this is not an overtly political book; it's a thriller with political implications, for those who care to see them. Islamic fanaticism is presented in a basically empathetic light: Berenson shows us how such fanaticism arises, is born, and yet he does so without in any way endorsing it. In fact, one of the terrorists in the story, an Egyptian M.D., has moments of sanity in which he doubts the merits of plotting the murder of millions. But despite those moments, he continues to work on the bomb...

Of Berenson's three novels, I still prefer his first, The Faithful Spy, and reading this one helped me put my finger on why. In the first book, John Wells was under cover for ninety percent of the time, resulting in a taut quality, a sustained tension. This tension would be relieved for only brief (and sometimes sweet) moments -- e.g., when Wells would see Exley -- and then Wells would return to his cover, his peril, and his suffering.

In the subsequent two novels, including this one, we're following Wells only intermittently, and he seems to be under cover for only minutes at a time. For the rest of the narrative, we're either hanging with the bad guys and getting to understand their grievances, or we're at Langley, following the desk jockeys whose work, while essential and interesting in its way, can hardly compete for thrills with spies in the field. -- I guess the missing quality, the quality I found so compelling in the first book, is the sustained courage and suffering of John Wells.

Bottom line: Even though I'm still partial to The Faithful Spy, if you liked Berenson's earlier novels, you'll want to catch this one.

Somewhat Interesting But Too Formulaic
Alex Berenson has created the John Wells character who is not dissimilar from the Mitch Rapp creation by Vince Flynn. However, on the Wells character, Berenson has not fully developed a personality that engages the reader. The storyline is good enough, but the modern thriller formula is in full swing: pages 1-50 are the introduction and reference the past stories, 50-150 introduce the bad guys occasionally getting back to the good guys, mixed in is an event that is the catalyst to the story. Then half way through the book begin getting into the good stuff. I found myself skipping quickly through the write ups of why each Muslim decided to hate Americans. The first 200 pages could have been reduced to 25 and moved right into the meat of the story. Let's face it, it isn't the writing style that makes us want to read these types of stories, it's the story telling.

However, this thriller never really engages the reader in the meat and potatoes of the story either. It is contrived and stretched into something that doesn't feel real or exciting. I found myself hurrying through the book just to get to the end and to see what happened. There wasn't anything along the way that I found interesting or compelling. The characters were cardboard and standard issue. Some of the dialogue between Exley and Wells was forced.

There are many serial character storylines out there. This is just another that could be plugged and played with the others. Nothing special here, but if you are so inclined, it is a quick beach read.

Alex Berenson and John Wells a Winning Team
Over the last several months, I have read the thee John Wells novels that Alex Berenson has written. In Wells, Alex has created a character that is sure to be in the list of great recurring spy characters.
In The Silent Man, John Wells is pitted against terrorists who have acquired two bombs from Russia and are planning to set a bomb off on US soil. Wells, a CIA operative who we meet in the first Alex Berenson novel as having infiltrated Al Qaeda, becomes involved when chasing down a nemesis from the second book. Wells is in a race against time as nuclear destruction is about to be inflicted on the US.
The CIA often does not know what to do with Wells, who "goes off the ranch" from time to time.
The writing of Berenson is taut and this book and the other Wells books are page turners. Highly recommended reading.