mark of the assassin

My wife decided that she needed to go back and read the rest of Daniel Silva's earlier books, so she did an online search and purchased them in paperback, used. Packages started to arrive from all over; there must be a dozen of them. So I took a quick look into the order of them and found the answer in the frequently asked questions section of Silva's website.

The Mark of the Assassin is the first of two books written about CIA agent Michael Osbourne. As far as I know, there are only two, but on the same FAQ page linked above, there is a question about whether Osbourne will be back or not, and the answer is left open. you know, like when you asked for ice cream, or to go bowling, when you were eight, and one of your parents said "we'll see" and your eight-year-old brain was like; that means no The second Osbourne book does not appear to be in the stack of books recently sourced by my wife.

This book was written in 1998, so its dated, and the technology is dated as well. But not so dated as to be old timey, like an Ian Fleming novel or something. There are cell phones in this book, for example, they are just fixed in vehicles--with handsets on them. Just reading about them weighs about 2 pounds. There are some glimmers of modernity, and the women aren't all helpless damsels, altho Osbourne's wife does seem a little clingy for a high-powered lawyer. They're all like: "I don't know what I'd do if somethin' happened to you Michael, I jus' love you so much! I'd trow myself in a wood chipper or sumfin!" -gush- "I know baby." -smolder-  those aren't quotes from the book, no spoilers. little syrupy tho, no?

This story is tightly written, and other than a few things that probably read fine in '98, it hands together pretty well and came to a fine, if expected, climax. Silva has a style, and this is a great example of the early formation of that style. Its fun to see him working things out, that seem to be a easy for him now. It will be interesting to read the follow up to this if and when I run into it. Next up is the first Gabriel Allon book in that series. For folks that are only interested in Allon, it appears to me that this Osbourne story seems to be written in the same universe that Allon has his adventures.