Customer Reviews

In Secret Service: A Novel

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

"In Secret Service" is a compelling, nail-biting homage to Ian Fleming from first-time author Mitch Silver; a gripping historical thriller which, I am certain, would have pleased the old master himself. Silver has carved himself a vast historical canvas, and has rendered a gripping yarn about a dark secret dating from World War II. A secret ferreted out none other than by Ian Fleming himself, and recounted in a "memoir" that comprises much of the novel. Four decades after Fleming completes his unpublished "memoir", a young American art historian travels to Ireland, and there, claims her odd literary inheritance, which Fleming has bequeathed to her. Soon she realizes that Fleming's unpublished work is not just a compelling memoir that's been hidden deep within the vaults of a Dublin bank, but one whose dark secret will take her on an epic, almost nonstop, relentless journey back home. Pitting herself against secret agents and assassins eager to use every deadly foul means at their disposal towards retrieving that manuscript, she realizes soon enough that her trek home is a desperate struggle to stay alive. Silver's historical research is quite admirable in both its scope and detail; readers will wonder whether many the events described are real, especially when we are introduced to such major real-life figures as Winston Churchill, Edward, Duke of Windsor, and Anthony Blunt. But, most importantly of all, Silver takes his readers on a glorious fictional saga worthy of comparison to James Bond's, and giving us more than a mere glimpse as to what the real-life adventures of former British naval spy Ian Fleming were during the course of World War II.

I'm going through my stack of freebie books that I snagged from my previous job before I left them. Right now, I'm almost finished reading In Secret Service by Mitch Silver. It's a bit of historical fiction with a heavy emphasis on fiction, and the main character, Dr. Amy Greenberg, is rather delightful although we don't get to see much of the good Doctor throughout much of the story. If I had any comment to make for future books from this author, I'd make the suggestion to show more of the action character in the story.

Granted, I'm reading this from a free, advance reading copy, so there may have been some minor changes to the final print edition, but I doubt that there were any major ones. The story details what happens when an ordinary person, Dr. Greenberg, finds herself suddenly in the middle of an international intrigue whose roots go back to King Edward VIII and his sudden departure from the British throne.

In one sense, this book reminds me of The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. Her book also uses the parallel movement of modern day life and historical fiction to tell a story. I think The Historian is superior in its ability to move the plot forward in both timelines, but I think In Secret Service does a better job creating a protagonist with whom the modern American reader can more easily identify.

I wish In Secret Service would use a bit more movement in the present timeline. There are long stretches where the reader is simply reading over Dr. Greenberg's shoulder, and nothing else happens in those moments except for the unfolding of the historical fiction in the past timeline. Nevertheless, with only 42 pages left to go in this novel, the author will really have to drop the ball and squash it with his foot in order to make me lose the interest in the storyline and the main character which I have at this point.

I'm looking forward to Mitch Silver's next book.

I listened to the audio version and if I hadn't been stuck in a car for 2 days, I probably wouldn't have finished the story. First of all my biggest gripe is that it is NOT a spy story (which was why I bought it). It is half conspiracy theory and half . . . fake memoir.

Basic plot is: Girl gets strange manuscript as inheritance and proceeds to read it during her trip while missing all sorts of clue that the conspiracy is closing in around her. Big finale is girl and fiancee running around a museum like screaming ninnies while trying to get away from conspiracy thugs.

The fake memoir part is at least interesting and made me want to research it to find out the real vs fake rate. (Haven't done so yet.)

The book (which I flipped through) does have some cool production. The "evidence" that comes with the memoir is put in the book. For example 1/2 of a torn letter is a big piece of evidence and on that page you see a 1/2 of a torn letter in handwriting. That part was cool.

I can't recommend reading this book but if you want to, I feel no qualms about telling you to skip ALL of the 'modern' parts involving the girl. You gain nothing from them.

A young American history professor travels to Dublin to pickup her inheritance bequeathed to her by a friend of her late grandfather. She was surprised to only find an old manuscript in the vault of the bank that was to be closed. Soon she will learn that it is not just an unpublished memoir by Ian Fleming but one that reveals dark secrets dating back to WWII. Only with her wit and some luck does she survive the secret agents and assassins that will do anything to retrieve the manuscript and keep it from being made public.

This prose was sooooooooooo compelling and when many real-life characters were introduced it made you wonder what was real and what was fiction. The "memoir" comprises much of the novel and the prose alternates between that and this young lady trying to get safely home. Or so she thought. I was so pleased that Silver had a well written "Author's Notes," at the end.

Of course any reader that wants to know a lot of the intrigue surrounding WWII, then this book will easily rate five stars.

Author al-Qaeda Strikes Again

Mitch Silver has written a fast-moving, involving, witty thriller that combines history and fiction creatively and evokes both place and time in a way that captures the imagination. Silver draws on a few facts about Ian Fleming's World War II intelligence service and builds an edifice from it that imagines treachery during the War and murder to protect the treachery in the present and recent past. As with most thrillers of worth, he makes parts of New York and New Haven into characters in the book with his clear and evocative descriptions of the places (whether they be real or imagined). Only quibble is that his British spy tradecraft is somewhat far from the mark. However, read it!

(Full disclosure: Mitch and I were classmates in college and friends since).

In reading Mitch Silver's book, historical truth and witty conjecture become hard to separate, and one is led down alley after fascinating alley wondering which is which. Did Wallis Simpson really have unique genital architecture? Was Ian Fleming truly a Churchill protégé? Surely, Princess Diana's death cannot truly be connected to the abdication of Edward VIII...

Only when an author has seriously researched his subject can he play with smoke and mirrors so effectively.

The fictional Amy Greenburg becomes the unwitting courier of a deadly document, one that contains allegations of treachery at the highest level. But Silver's trick is to combine this fiction with a nagging feeling that it might all be true, and you're left wondering until the very end. And even then...

Half way through `In Secret Service' I called out to a friend, in another room of the house, that I believed this guy Silver had a best seller on his hands.

The male reader, who is assigned the Ian Fleming voice reading a manuscript for "after our death" does an excellent job; the actress playing the heroine is just about adequate. Since the thriller portions of the book are done in the heroines voice, there is something lacking on the action side.
There is ample coverage in the previous reviews of the book to suffice; as to the audio-book, it is a good "listen", worth the time spent upon it. I don't suppose it is necessary to remind the listener that the manuscript with regard to the Duke is fantasy woven on a very few historical facts; it is no more to be believed than are the characters and actions of the heroine, her hero, or the nasty guys. Nonetheless, it makes for an interesting story. The penultimate sections set at Yale University could be made more vivid in terms of place so as to enable a better imaginative image by the listener, but the action is suspenseful. Over-all, I can commend it to most thriller mystery fans, particularly those who like to the fee, if not the reality, of historical verisimilitude.

I am always looking for a new author and Mitch Silver could be good but fell far short of my expectations. The story was about WWII was interesting enough and he should have just stuck with that instead of bouncing back and forth from the past to the present. Just when he started to peek my interest he tore me to the present and the characters were flat and irritating. I usually don't put a book down but this one I had to walk away from. The best thing about the book is hopefully it will be recycled into something readable.

Overall I liked it. The story seemed to get a little bogged down with extra characters/information that wasn't needed...I must admit I was a lost a few times with the plot itself. The extended chase scene at the end was unnecessary and I did expect more of a "big reveal" but seemed a little anti-climatic.

This book had great potential but it has some shortcomings. Amy Greenberg is bequeathed with a manuscript, Provenance, by Ian Fleming - a manuscript two generations old. Amy's job is to connect the dots and make the final decision of what to do with the manuscript.

I thought Amy's life story was much more interesting than the manuscript itself. There were too many important people in the manuscript, making it stuffy. Everyone was a duke, princess, queen, duchess, earl or something. I also think the book would be easier to appreciate for a person well-versed with the history and personages in the book, and there are a lot of them!

From the language to the people themselves, I found this book too highfalutin.