The Silent Man (A John Wells Novel)

I love spy thrillers and military fiction. ALEX BERENSON is a leading proponent of both categories but in single stories. THE SILENT MAN is book 3 in a multibook series featuring John Wells and his friends. What makes JOHN WELLS unique is that he spent 10 years undercover as an Arab speaking, Islam believing, undercover agent in the Taliban in Afghanistan. When Wells finally comes in from the cold, he has a tough time readjusting to life in the United States. His wife has divorced him and will not allow him to see their teenage son. He develops a relationship with Jenny Exley also a CIA operative who is a single mom with two kids.

In this book, THE SILENT MAN, Wells and his group are looking for two atom bombs stolen from a Russian nuclear facility on the western border of Siberia. The bombs are stolen by two Muslim employees of the nuclear facility under the direction of two non-Russian Muslims. The story winds its way through Russia to the Black Sea to Hamburg (Germany) to Newfoundland (Canada) to Corning in upstate New York (United States). The Really Bad Guys (RBG) lose one of the bombs. They do not have the codes necessary to arm the remaining one so they have to take the bomb apart and rebuild it. The RBGs plan to explode the bomb in Washington, D.C. (the nation's capitol) during the President's annual State of the Union speech when all of the nation's leaders will be in that city.

Wells and his friends have to work around the German BND and without Russia's assistance. All I can say is thank goodness for operatives such as John Wells. The book has pulse racing action and is mostly believable.

GO! BUY! READ!

I've become hooked on Berenson's John Wells series in the past year, but haven't had the chance to read them all in order, so I've been going back and reading the ones that I missed. This was one that fell through the cracks the first time around. Like the other novels in the series I enjoyed this one too, and almost feel bad giving it only 3 stars, but I felt that the plot had a few too many holes in it, or at least too many moments when I just didn't feel that a particular incident was believable. Plus, the ending left me dissatisfied.

Nevertheless, Berenson still spins a good story, packed with memorable characters. Another bonus is that his writing style does not totally belittle or discredit the villains in the story, giving them a more human face, and giving the reader a chance to understand what makes them tick. In this episode Wells confronts some longtime Russian enemies, a handful of Muslim extremists, and a spotty German or two. Throw in his trusty CIA colleagues (well, maybe not all of them so trusty) and you have the recipe for a real page turner. One of those books that you'll be hard-pressed to put down once you start reading. But that's the way it is with all the books in this series.

Despite all the action and intriguing sub-plots. I felt the ending was a bit too neat and tidy. As Wells saved the day once again, the climax to it all came almost too quick, lacking the drama and tension of other books in the series. But in the end all is forgiven; I'll keep reading other installments in this very interesting series..

This is the third book by Alex Berenson to feature CIA agent John Wells, after The Faithful Spy and The Ghost War. In each of the first two books, Wells was forced to save the U.S. from incalculable damage, almost single-handedly and at great cost to his own personal well-being. After all he's been through, you'd think the poor guy would deserve a vacation, but no such luck.

As this book opens, Islamic jihadists manage to steal two nuclear weapons from a Russian arms depot. Not surprisingly, they intend to detonate the weapons in the U.S. This will not be easy because they do not have the codes necessary to explode the bombs in their current state. But the knowledge for building an atomic weapon is fairly easy to find; all you need are the proper ingredients. The plan is to disassemble the bombs and recombine the elements in a way that will create a significant nuclear explosion.

Meanwhile, John Wells is back in Washington D.C. One morning, he and his fiance, Jennifer Exley, are on their way to work at the CIA when they are attacked by a group of Russian assassins. Wells had earlier humiliated a powerful arms dealer who has, in turn, contracted with the Russians to get revenge. Exley is seriously wounded in the attack; several CIA agents in a vehicle trailing them are killed; and John Wells is mightily pissed. This will be very bad news for the arms dealer who initiated the attack.

As the story gathers momentum, all of these elements come together to produce another page-turner of a novel. To his credit, Berenson does not create cardboard-cutout bad guys. These characters are well-drawn, with believable motives that make sense to them, even though most Americans would obviously not agree with them. Berenson also describes the theft of the weapons and the terrorists' plans for using them in a way that sounds credible and that is extremely scary. And in the end, we can only hope that, once again, John Wells will be up to the task at hand.

One minor caveat: Earlier in his career, while in Afghanistan, Wells had converted to Islam, and the notion of an Islamic CIA agent battling Islamic terrorists was very intriguing. In the earlier books, his faith was an important part of Well's makeup but for some reason, in this book it is almost completely glossed over. There are a couple of references to Wells's faith but it certainly does not seem to be an animating factor in his behavior. I'm not sure why Berenson chose to downplay the character's religious faith in this book, but the effect is to make him a somewhat less interesting character and to transform him into a more routine action hero.

Muslim extremists have stolen two nuclear bombs from a Russian arsenal with a plan to use the radioactive material inside to build one large bomb to detonate inside the United States. With little help from the stubborn Russian government, The CIA doesn't even know how much nuclear material is missing nor where to start looking. The extremists are a small group with access to unlimited money and have covered their tracks well.

An attempt is made on the lives of CIA agents John Wells and his fiancé Jenny Exley in Washington D.C. Wells is sure he knows who paid for the hit, a European arms dealer with past dealings with Wells. In spite of his fiancé and bosses asking him not to, Wells rushes to pay back Pierre Kowalksi. His mission fails, however, ending with three others dead and him never getting close to Kowalski. In order to end their bad blood Kowalksi offers up information he has on the stolen nukes which pulls John into the hunt for the terrorists. His inability to sit this one out and take care of Exley causes great pain for her, changing their relationship.

I found The Silent Man to be a very good thriller. The plot may not be the most original but Berenson is a talented writer, not only keeping the action moving but giving his characters distinct personalities and depth. The relationship between Wells and Exley is much more complicated than you usually get in a thriller. The only let down was the ending which was kind of abrupt and lacked the payoff for the set up.

I read the first Alex Berenson book, The Faithful Spy, because of an the store review of the Plague Maker by Tim Downs. She had compared their styles. I find myself comparing their styles too. Berenson's writing is more clinical and doesn't flow as easily as that of Tim Downs who managed to inject just the right amount of humor to urge you to keep turning the pages. Berenson's plots are good, but I find John Wells to be a rather cold character and the stories lack that special something that makes me reach for the next book in the series. I'll continue reading his books when I can't get those of other preferred authors, but I don't rush to check out the next book like I did with all of Tim Downs' fictional books.

At the outset, John Wells and Jennifer Exley are engaged and thinking about a life together that won't include the CIA. But Wells is targeted by enemies he's made. Despite security they are attacked, Exley is seriously injured, and Wells can only think about tracking down the hit's origin and getting revenge. One catch: Exley doesn't want him to, but he does it anyway.

Meanwhile, a carefully engineered plan years in the making is executed. Islamist terrorists steal two Russian nukes from a weapons depot, inducing two Muslim employees to help them. The bombs begin a circuitous route westward. The bad guys can't detonate them because they don't have the codes - but they make fine raw material for making a homemade nuke.

Wells' revenge attempt is only moderately successful, nearly creating an international incident in Moscow, but his terrorizing of the Swiss arms dealer who had him attacked results in an unexpected yield when the dealer gives him a lead to the nukes.

A good spy procedural. How bad guy Nasiji takes years to lay this plan. How the two Russian plant employees are turned. How the bombs are moved. How the new one is fabricated - particularly interesting. And how a path of safe houses, untraceable vehicles and documents is laid from Siberia to the ultimate destination.

I'm tiring - well, tired of - the complicated tensions between Exley and Wells. I wish they'd just break up already. Exley hates how Wells feels compelled to put himself in the way of danger, but just can't help loving the big lug. Wells can't help but loving the foxy intelligence analyst but can't help himself from throwing himself into mission after mission, usually solo, to her immense dissatisfaction, for an agency he doesn't trust with a director he doesn't like, and can only hope she'll jump into his big, strong arms when he returns. Makes perfect sense. (?)

Wells was most interesting when he was undercover with the jihadis in the first book and had actually not only converted to Islam but absorbed the jihadis' slightly negative view of American society. Since then, he's been a confused character - liking the action and good at it, but inexplicably uncomfortable with it. I think Berenson writes these books primarily for liberal women, for whom Exley's skittishness and Wells' ambivalence about his action-guy talents are necessary, as anyone who was at peace with this life would, to them, be a fascist. Or, worse, a Republican. For others, this all becomes tedious.

Exley and Wells need some serious relationship counseling, which I certainly don't want to read about; and Wells should, if he can't handle his chosen profession anymore, get out and sell insurance. He's a pretty good spook, though. I hope he figures it out.

I have read and enjoyed Berenson's first two titles, but was skeptical because I felt that the conclusion to the second Wells novel telgraphed the plot of this third go-round. Namely, Wells (and the reader) can expect arms dealer Pierre Kowalski to come after Wells, his lady friend and sometime CIA partner Exley, and the US.

And, he does. But, very early in the book, and then Berenson takes the plot in what for me was an unexpected direction. We are not subject to a sort of Dr. No, mano-a-mano story that I feared. So, strictly on plot, I was pleasantly surprised.

Beyond that, some other pleasant surprises. Berenson proves to be conversant in some of the finer points of nuclear weapons technology, helpful since the story centers around a smuggled Russian nuke.

Also, he does something rarely seen in post-9/11 espionage novels: humanizes the Islamic terrorists. We see them with their families, we are fly on the wall for intimate and affectionate sexual moments with their wives, we even are afforded an omniscience that reveals their misgivings about the destruction they plan and the remorse they feel for the innocents that will be victims.

By contrast, Wells himself is rather a shallow character, and the distance from Exley in this work doesn't help. He becomes overly libidinous and there is little further exploration of his past (Ivy Leaguer, Muslim convert) in ways that might mine the biography that has been laid out.

This was my third Alex Berenson thriller. I've been reading them in order starting with The Faithful Spy. I'd admire his books a lot mainly due to the fact that he has been there, in the fight, experiencing the horrors and joys that our nations warriors face everyday. He mentions in some way in each of his books how evil the men in Washington are and how wonderful the grunts at the front line are. He never shy's away from expressing his love and support for the troops.

The Faithful Spy was amazing and The Ghost War just as good. The Silent Man however seemed like the middle movie of a really good movie trilogy. Not bad, but not as good as the first or the next. Just average. It has it's thrills and it's very entertaining, but I found the plot to be too generic. But that won't stop me from reading Alex's books. I own them all on hard back and they sit on my shelf with my prized collections of books right before Brad Thor and Vince Flynn.

Alex, you're doing an amazing job with your books. I may be slightly negative about The Silent Man, but that is definitely not keeping me from racing to read all of your books. Keep up the amazing work and keep John Wells dodging bullets and saving lives.

Book 3 in the John Wells series

The tale involves the theft of Russian made nuclear warheads to be used in an effort to trigger a U.S.-Russia conflict. Muslim terrorists calculate the ideal time and place would be Washington during the State of the Union address, payback for decades of Western domination and oppression.
The story is vividly told and plunges its readers into a scary minute-by- minute fictional account of how the militants steal two nuclear weapons, smuggle them into the U.S and on an isolated New York farm create a devise that will help bring them closer to the world they dream of.

Meanwhile, back in the States, an old nemesis from a previous encounter, Pierre Kowalski, mounts a deadly assault killing several people and severely injuring Exley, Wells' fiancé. This is sweet revenge; Wells had severely humiliated him in the previous novel, "The Ghost War". Wells has a strong suspicion as to who is behind the attack and due to personal interests and against the advice of his CIA superiors; he makes it his mission to bring the attackers and their mastermind to justice. Tracking them to Russia, he manages to kill several of the assassins but is unable to cut the head of the snake, his ultimate trophy. The cat and mouse game between himself and Kowalski rages on until Wells realises Kowalski has an important bargaining chip, information on the nuclear plot against the U.S.

This international intrigue is mildly enjoyable; I found the adventure lacks some of the rapid-fire pacing I like to experience in a thriller. However, it does provide some white-knuckle suspense and could be considered chillingly plausible. The plotting is very predictable for this day and age. John Wells, the main character, is still a complex blend of smarts and cynicism and Exley's role along with the romance between the two is weak and quite boring. The exploits of the secondary characters and those of the hero, in my opinion, place this novel in the class of a Jack Bauer "24" series, very interesting at first but eventually loses its allure.

Needless to say my interest in this series is waning

Take heed, two nuclear weapons have been stolen from a Russian nuclear complex.

In Zurich, arms dealer, Pierre Kowalski wants revenge for what CIA agent John Wells did to him when he forced information from him in Long Island. Now Kowalski has paid a man named Markov to kill Wells.

The plan is to strike when Wells travels to his office.

Unaware of the sinister forces plotting his demise, Wells is driving to work with his fiancee, Jennifer Exley. Suddenly, there's a traffic snarl. Being a CIA agent with well tuned preservation skills, he senses danger as a motorcycle passes him and another is approaching, weaving in and out of traffic. His quick thinking enables him to dispatch the assassins, but Jennifer is badly wounded.

In another part of this complex plot, near Ramadi, Iraq, Sayyed Nasiji plots with Sheik Ahmed Faisal. Their goal is to purchase the necessary materials and assemble a bomb in the United States. They want United States to feel what Iraq has gone through.

The fast moving story has Wells intent on getting revenge on Kowalski. However, when Kowalksy comes across some news about the nuclear weapons, he feels that he can trade it to Wells for the promise of his safety.

The goal of a thriller is to provide adventure and suspense and Alex Berenson has done so, admirably in this novel. Wells continues to be an excellent protagonist and the plot, though complex, was well written. The action was there and the story was vastly entertaining.

This is the third book featuring CIA Special Agent John Wells and it will probably make more sense to you if you have read at least one of the others. Early in the book there is a worrying close attempt on Wells and his partner Exley's lives. Wells is determined to track down the assassins. However at the same time, some Muslim extremists are trying to smuggle a nuclear bomb into the US. Wells will need to make a decision between pursuing his personal vendetta vs following a lead that could help him stop the extremists.

What I like about Berenson's writing is that it feels (reasonably) plausible and grounded in current events. The villains are also well developed characters rather than one-dimensional cardboard cutouts. However the downside of this is that the book never really gains the momentum that makes you want to keep reading until the small hours. There's too much explanation and back story along the way. It's a perfectly acceptable airplane read, but ultimately there's nothing here to make it stand out from the genre. Well's character remains inscrutable, and the strains in his relationship with Exley never made any sense to me.

So it's an okay read, but nothing outstanding. Having said that, I enjoyed it sufficiently that I plan to read the next installment.

This is the third novel from Alex Berenson featuring his flawed hero, John Wells. The first two were excellent and this is no exception.

A fast moving spy/thriller which is not only well written, but provides us with strong characterisation, logic and motive. Wells is a hero but not only flawed but suffering from the consequences of his previous experiences. Despite a CIA protection team, he and girlfriend Exley are attacked and she is badly injured so Wells goes off to deliver bloody revenge. At the same time there is a nuclear threat to the US and Wells may have to compromise for the greater good.

A storyline I have seen a few times, but rarely delivered as well as it is here. I kept thinking of Vince Flynn's Mitch Rapp (a character and series I enjoy) but the difference is that Flynn writes about almost a comic book character, whereas Berenson gives us fleshed out characters with motives that make sense within the context of the story. I particularly enjoyed the way the author presents the arms dealer, Kowalski and his dealing with Wells. This moves at a strong pace that keeps you captivated and entertained throughout. I read a lot of this stuff and I can honestly say that the author is a must read if you enjoy this genre.

Highly recommended.

Nuclear terrorism is a nightmare we have never faced in the United States, nor recently has any other nation in the world to our knowledge. It is something we never want to think about since many of us throughout the world know of the devastation that nuclear weapons wrought on Japan that helped end World War Two and caused so much human suffering and ultimate physical destruction. "The Silent Man" gives the reader an idea of how such a devastating act would bring our world to it knees. Alex Berenson's CIA undercover operative John Wells has been through so much dangerous cloak and dagger work throughout the world that his fiancé is never sure if he will be there for her or lie dead from some unknown killer or simply disappear. Jennifer Exley and John Wells had finally moved into a house of their own but their work as agents made their life very dangerous and also made extra security a way of life. Exley never knew if Wells would be coming back from a mission or not.

The president's State of the Union speech was coming up shortly and a few eastern groups wanted to cause ruin to the United States during that speech if at all possible. They secretly met in small groups and made their plans to set off a nuclear device wreaking havoc in Washington if possible during the speech or another large city if Washington didn't work out. They had to find a way to get the device first. Several workers at a well-guarded nuclear storage facility in Russia worked on getting two of the devices out of the plant and into the United States by any means possible. The plans were laid, the process started, the shipment got on its way, and some of the involved men were "done away with" so their information would not be shared. The shipment had to work perfectly with precise timing. Amidst accidents of various types, the device partially got to Canada and into the United States to a rural farm in Pennsylvania where the scientist could work on the device and makes it ready for destruction. The many spies involved made the secrecy hard to maintain.

Jennifer Exley had been involved in a deadly accident caused by some terrorists in the United States before the shipment of the nuclear devices began. Wells had to leave on his mission before he knew if his fiancé would live or die. She was in very critical condition. He was sent on the mission to find those trying to terrorize our nation as well as finding the nation or nations that were involved in this possible disaster.

A fantastic story that could occur on our earth any day by those that would stand against a nation or a cause. The results would not be pretty. None of us wants to picture the results of a nuclear blast anywhere in our world. The Silent Man is very hard to put down. The story is involved but not to the point of the reader not understanding what is going on and what and who are involved.

Those bibliophiles who've joined me in reading the previous two novels (The Faithful Spy (A John Wells Novel) and The Ghost War) featuring Alex Berenson's hero, John Wells, will perhaps agree with me that, in THE SILENT MAN, Wells is now fully developed as a literary character and both he and his creator have hit full stride. THE SILENT MAN is a thriller that I couldn't put down.

Here, Muslim jihadists steal two Russian nuclear warheads and make their way with them to Pennsylvania, where, with a sleeper agent, an Egyptian-born surgeon now practicing in the U.S., set about constructing a simple A-bomb based on the design of "Little Boy", the device dropped on Hiroshima. This time, though, the target is to be Washington, D.C. during the President's State of the Union speech. Wells, of course, finds himself in the position to save the day.

Perhaps the plot isn't all that imaginative, but the telling of the tale is first rate. Indeed, though I didn't count the pages, it seemed that Berenson dedicated an amount of text to the point of view of the Bad Guys equal to that devoted to John's perspective. This makes for a meaty, tense, and well-developed thriller, especially when the focus was on the bomb's design and construction.

Wells may be one of the most interesting protagonists to come along in awhile. A CIA agent who successfully infiltrated, and spent several years fighting with, al-Qaeda in Afghanistan before returning to America (THE FAITHFUL SPY), John is a poster boy of self-destructive tendencies that endanger his physical well-being, his relationship with his significant other and former controller, Jennifer Exley, and his professional standing within the Agency. And it doesn't help that Wells occasionally displays an insubordinate, smart-mouth attitude. I like that in a hero. (But it only works if you're otherwise indispensable.)

In my opinion, Wells, because of his idiosyncrasies, has moved up in the pantheon of literary Tough Guys to share top billing with my current most favorite, Lee Child's Jack Reacher. The last paragraph of THE SILENT MAN screams out for a fourth adventure in the series. I relish the prospect of it.

I have liked Wells since reading the first book in this series. As another reviewer noted, the first book saw Wells primarily under-cover, and that novel had a tension to it that was almost breathtaking at times. This one has tension as well, but it's tension of a different sort.

Here we find Wells attempting to live a normal life with Exley, the woman he loves. One of the biggest questions in books 2 and 3 in this series is whether Wells is even capable of living a normal life, whether he has become his job in ways that make it unlikely that he will ever be able to have the wife, house, and 2.5 kids. Frankly, I've never gotten the sense that this character can have that future, not unless the wife is willing to be constantly at risk and also thrives on the adrenaline rush of this most intense of spy games. As for kids--hard to imagine Wells (who has a child already, but who rarely sees that child) as a dad.

In this, the third book in the series, Wells and Exley are nearly killed in an attack that is the result of Wells' (understandable and justified) attack on a character in the previous book. Exley is badly injured, and Wells takes on an assignment meant to help him resolve the situation with the arms dealer who ordered the attack.

The book weaves that part of the plot with another, far more menacing one: terrorists are putting together a nuke which they intend to use to take out a very important group of statespeople in a way that will shock the world and likely bring about a nuclear war that will decimate the superpowers the terrorists think are responsible for so much bloodshed, chaos, and death.

Part of the reason I enjoyed this book is that it made me think anew about the issue of using nukes against another country, regardless of what might motivate us to do so.

I'd forgotten all the descriptions and documents I'd read about the effects of dropping Fat Man and Little Boy on Nagasaki and Hiroshima, respectively, and this book made me ponder that once more. I gotta say--it's a good thing to ponder that as often as possible just to be sure we have some minor clue what we'd be doing if we used nukes against another country.

Anyway, I'm getting a wee bit off topic. Strengths in this one: the topics are interesting and appropriate for our current circumstances; Wells' character gets developed a bit and is challenged by the potential loss of the woman he loves; the "bad guys" aren't quite as stereotypical as they could have been. Weaknesses: the way this one, like book 2, seems to build to a very brief climactic scene wherein the main action takes place in a few paragraphs, if that.

I like Well, like Berenson's writing, and I will pick up the next one. But like some of the other reviewers, I think the first book was the absolute best so far.

This novel falls into the thriller-adventure-spy genre, a category which I occasionally read just for the pure sake of entertainment and pleasure. There are times in one's life when reading scholarly and "great" books in philosophy and literature (which I have to read because of my vocation) can become tedious and an escape is necessary from the burdens of such thought-provoking texts into something akin to fantasy, something that appeals to one's imagination rather than to one's intellect; a sort of "vacation" from serious topics and controversial issues into a world of chills and thrills. Such, at least, is my personal justification for reading novels which will never make the list of classic literary works. That is, if I need a rationale at all for spending time in pure entertainment and pleasure. "All work and no play, makes Jon a rather dull person," so to speak.

This is my first exposure to Alex Berenson's hero, John Wells. Berenson has written two previous novels with this hero in play and I intend now to obtain these and read them because Wells is a very interesting protagonist and Berenson writes an excellent thriller. Some activities portrayed in "The Silent Man" seem almost implausible -- stealing a nuclear weapon out of a well-guarded Russian storage facility, for instance -- until one realizes that we currently live in an almost implausible world of international intrigue and state-organized and state-sponsored terror. John Wells, certainly not your run-of-the-mill CIA agent, has to deal with this dangerous situation, along with all sorts of problems and subplots working against him, including his own emotional insecurities and personality defects. He is not the "super-hero," merely a human hero, caught up in a web of invidious schemes that threaten civilized life as we know and live it.

Of course, these are the makings of an excellent thriller and Berenson's novel is an excellent thriller, a real page-turner which forces one to stay up late into the night and course through the book at a rapid pace. The problem is that, unfortunately, a work such as this has to come to an end. But the reader who is a lover of the thriller genre will not be disappointed and will look forward to the next installment in the adventurous life of John Wells. As for me, I can hardly wait. I need another "vacation." Highly recommended for those who need an escape from the ordinary affairs of daily living into an exciting world of chills and thrills.

In Alex Berenson's "The Silent Man," fanatical jihadists are planning to unleash a deadly weapon on American soil. Fortunately, the CIA has John Wells, who speaks fluent Arabic, is an expert in hand-to-hand combat and weaponry, and is unafraid to risk his life. His recklessness does not sit well with his bosses or with his girlfriend and colleague, Jennifer Exley. Nevertheless, John believes that the hidebound bureaucracy in Langley is too slow to respond when the fate of the free world is at stake. Therefore, he ignores his superiors' tongue-lashings and Jennifer's pleas.

"The Silent Man" is a conventional spy thriller with a large number of villains and very few heroes. The one-dimensional characters include a fabulously wealthy Russian arms dealer who enjoys rich food, a life of ease, and the attentions of a gorgeous supermodel; several young Arabs whose personal losses have made them bitter and eager for revenge; and various civil servants in the intelligence community who order Wells to obey the chain of command instead of going it alone. This is all familiar territory that has been covered many times before.

To his credit, Berenson has done his homework. He gives detailed background information about Russian nukes and vividly describes both the endemic corruption in Russia and the huge financial chasm between the oligarchs and the country's ordinary citizens. In addition, the author brings home the frightening vulnerability of the Western powers to acts of terror. There is enough action to satisfy adrenaline junkies, with chase scenes, gunplay, grisly violence, and a frantic race against time. However, the dialogue is trite and the story is so predictable that it becomes tedious well before its foregone conclusion. "The Silent Man" breaks little new ground in a well-worn genre.

Another solid entry in this modern-day spy thriller series. John Wells is settling into domestic bliss with Jennifer Exley, his co-worker and fellow spy. But their life is about to be shattered when one of the baddies that John previously wronged seeks revenge in a planned assassination as Wells and Exley make their way to work. They are well-guarded, but though the attack is partially blocked, Exley is severely injured.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, two nuclear bombs have gone missing from a Russian bomb storage facility, having been stolen by a small group of Muslim terrorists. As those people work to get the bombs over the sea to American soil where they will build their own nuclear device, the CIA learns of the missing bombs and must play games behind the scenes to find out what they can because the Russians are not very forthcoming. John Wells has a role in that too--in fact, the two cases eventually intersect.

I enjoy this series quite a lot. I really loved the first book where John was more or less on his own--it was a more unique story and he had to rely on his own resourcefulness and wit. The subsequent books, including this one, with all the machinations of the FBI, CIA and the other "initial" agencies and their posturing and game-playing have been slightly less appealing to me. Anyone can accomplish things if you have the CIA providing you with false documentation and 'friends' to talk to to get you what you need or to introduce you to the people you need involved. It's just not as exciting to me as the 'lone wolf.' But still a good read, well-written and as it's addressing concerns of the present day, enough to scare the bejeezus out of you if you let it.

The Silent Man is Alex Berensen's third installment in the series featuring CIA agent John Wells. I originally picked up Berensen's initial work, The Faithful Spy, on a whim and have been hooked ever since. Despite the plethora of works out there today that touch on al-Queda and terrorism, Berenson is able to spin a believable and intriguing story that did not feel repetitive. The Wells character, along with fellow-agent Jennifer Exley and the other characters continue to grow across the novels. In this case, Wells and Exley are quickly pulled into tracking down a terrorist plot that shatters their hopes for a saner and less dangerous life together. Start to finish, this work moved along with pace. Berenson effectively uses plot twists and unexpected action to keep the reader engaged and turning the pages. If you have been wondering about whether to take a chance with a new author, give Beresen's works a shot. I recommend, however, that you read the predecessor books in order prior to tackling The Silent Man. While each work could stand on its own, they are clearer better taken in sequence.

In The Faithful Spy, Alex Berenson wrote what may be the best thriller I have ever read. Berenson's second novel, The Ghost War, was almost as good and further filled out the characters of both the central characters, CIA Agent John Wells and his girlfriend and fellow agent Jennifer Exley.

The Silent Man is the third installment in this series. Wells is a Jack Bauer-type agent who is after Pierre Kowalksi, a Russian mobster bent on killing him.

Wells goes after him and kills a lot of people but fails to get Kowalski. The Russian then decides to save himself by offering Wells the only chance to foil a very complicated plot to set off a nuclear device --which is just about to detonate in or near Washington, D.C. (I'll stop here so I don't reveal too much of the plot.)

Berenson does in-depth research which helps convince us that what is happening in his books is very real and very possible and the kind of things that could happen -- which makes it all the more frightening. You wonder if you'll see it in the headlines tomorrow.

This is a series you won't want to miss. Start at the beginning and read right through.

I enjoyed the story but found myself skipping over a lot of the details. Berenson is a good writer but I became bored with minute description of how they built the bomb. Every couple of chapters there was more of it. I really didn't care about learning how the covering of a nuclear bomb works, and how they forged one, etc. Maybe guys would enjoy this part, but I was more interested in the story and intrigue rather than the physics and manufacture of a bomb.
Other than that, the story makes one think. Its frightening when you think of all the people sneaking into the US and wondering what they are doing.

Mr. Berenson delivers a top-notch thriller once again. But hopefully he's going to retire John Wells who is quite burned out by the end of the book--okay, by the middle.

Meanwhile, one of the most fascinating aspects of Mr. Berenson's fiction continues to be the critique of politics, geo-politics, and government bureaucracies that he stitches into the story. Fear not, he's not a didactic author, but he does have important things to say. For example, two of the most memorable scenes in the book, which don't even involve John Wells, convey instructive lessons. In the first, a terrorist who has become somewhat reluctant fearfully tells his wife what his cell is working on. Not only is she not surprised, she's thrilled; in fact she's aroused and initiates sex for the first time in their marriage. Her bloodthirstiness makes a powerful counterweight to the slight sympathy her husband's doubts might have provoked. In the other, there's a meeting in the Oval Office to consider what should be done if the government can't locate the bombers. Wells's CIA boss, and nemesis, spends the meeting trying to figure out how to guarantee that he maintains his own position regardless of whether Washington is nuked or not. This portrayal of bureaucrats whose primary interest is the bureaucracy and their own place in it, rather than the country and its vital interests, is a consistent theme of the books and an important insight into how the Founders' balance of powers has been thrown off by the rise of an institution they'd never considered, the permanent bureaucracy.

Mr. Berenson handles action and the details of spycraft and terrorism well enough that his books would work were they merely thrillers. But the manner in which he folds in these broader ideas lifts them to the top of the genre.

I enjoyed the story but found myself skipping over a lot of the details. Berenson is a good writer but I became bored with minute description of how they built the bomb. Every couple of chapters there was more of it. I really didn't care about learning how the covering of a nuclear bomb works, and how they forged one, etc. Maybe guys would enjoy this part, but I was more interested in the story and intrigue rather than the physics and manufacture of a bomb.
Other than that, the story makes one think. Its frightening when you think of all the people sneaking into the US and wondering what they are doing.

Mr. Berenson delivers a top-notch thriller once again. But hopefully he's going to retire John Wells who is quite burned out by the end of the book--okay, by the middle.

Meanwhile, one of the most fascinating aspects of Mr. Berenson's fiction continues to be the critique of politics, geo-politics, and government bureaucracies that he stitches into the story. Fear not, he's not a didactic author, but he does have important things to say. For example, two of the most memorable scenes in the book, which don't even involve John Wells, convey instructive lessons. In the first, a terrorist who has become somewhat reluctant fearfully tells his wife what his cell is working on. Not only is she not surprised, she's thrilled; in fact she's aroused and initiates sex for the first time in their marriage. Her bloodthirstiness makes a powerful counterweight to the slight sympathy her husband's doubts might have provoked. In the other, there's a meeting in the Oval Office to consider what should be done if the government can't locate the bombers. Wells's CIA boss, and nemesis, spends the meeting trying to figure out how to guarantee that he maintains his own position regardless of whether Washington is nuked or not. This portrayal of bureaucrats whose primary interest is the bureaucracy and their own place in it, rather than the country and its vital interests, is a consistent theme of the books and an important insight into how the Founders' balance of powers has been thrown off by the rise of an institution they'd never considered, the permanent bureaucracy.

Mr. Berenson handles action and the details of spycraft and terrorism well enough that his books would work were they merely thrillers. But the manner in which he folds in these broader ideas lifts them to the top of the genre.

I savored this book, enjoying a few dozen pages each evening. And as the next evening approached, I looked forward to reading more of the story.

Before coming across this solid work of fiction, I'd never heard of Alex Berenson. He's a reporter for the New York Times, a publication that strikes me as more concerned with distorting the news than reporting the news. I would not accuse them of having a high regard for editorial integrity. Despite coming from that background, Berenson wrote a book that has strong cultural and political themes and yet didn't proselytize. In addition, he wrote a darn good book.

Much of what gets into the thriller genre isn't thrilling, but this is. In typical "thrillers," cardboard characters save the world from cardboard villains and get the girl in the end. In this novel, the characters are complex and the villains are real people with real motivations. As a reader, you feel like you understand what drives them but you can't quite predict what they are going to do. And the hero in this book didn't get the girl in the end.

This book is significant. How so? In several ways, actually. Before I explain why, let me provide a synopsis of the story.

The story begins with the theft of two warheads from the Russia's nuclear complex in Mayak. The way this gets pulled off makes for a great story within a story. Once these are stolen, the stage is set for our hero (CIA agent John Wells) to make his entry. His entry also makes for a great story within a story.

Wells has made several enemies, and one of them put a hit out on Wells. He is traveling by car with his fiancée (Jennifer Exley), when the hit goes down. The attackers are pros, but so is Wells. In the ensuing battle, Exley is severely injured. At the hospital, Exley's children and ex-husband arrive. Some tension and drama there.

We that find Wells has inner conflicts and that demons haunt him. He needs to let go, but he can't. He has a compulsive need to be where the action is. Exley is similarly conflicted, but the need to be with her children is drawing her toward a more peaceful existence. Wells' need to be with Exley similarly draws him that direction. But he's also strongly pulled in the opposite direction and therein lies one of the main threads in the story.

The man who contracted the hit realizes he made a big mistake. He realizes it even more, after the body count rises. He knows it's only a matter of time, and not much of it, before Wells takes him out. He needs to offer Wells something in way of a truce. Because he's an arms dealer, he has information about people seeking to buy beryllium (#4 on the Periodic Table). The purpose in obtaining this metal can only be to build an atomic bomb. With reports of "missing nuclear material," the arms dealer thinks he can buy a truce with Wells by giving him this information. So he does, and they treat.

It turns out someone really is building a bomb, and it looks like the target city is in the USA. Wells and his allies have to track these people down. One way we know for sure they are making a bomb is Berenson spends most of the novel with the people building it. It's almost, but not quite, a though the bomb-builders are the heroes of the story and Wells is the intruder. Berenson inverts the normal ratio of villain-time to hero-time. This inversion works, because the villains are far from cardboard characters that exist merely to advance the plot or give the hero something to do.

Berenson presumes readers already are familiar with Wells, and alludes frequently to things readers of the first two novels would know. I found this a bit off-putting, though for the most part Berenson handled it smoothly.

As I said, this book is significant. It's significant because it's over 400 pages long (in hardback format). Compare that to a typical novel that runs a couple hundred pages in a smaller format. The book is heavy, but the reading doesn't weigh you down. With its crisp dialogue and good character conflict, it seems to move fast.

It's significant because the story is a story for our times, yet it involves a struggle that has lasted over 1500 years.

It's significant because we don't need to "suspend belief" for this story to grip us from the outset. Everything seems plausible. And while reading, you can't help but think, "Hey, that could really happen."

It's significant because it's the third novel in a series by an emerging author. The third in a series is often a turning point in a writing career. This could be Berenson's last good novel. Or, it could be the threshold over which this author steps into a career that will be followed by an ever-growing number of fans. I think it's the latter.

Typically in thrillers, the characters serve the plot. An author may come up with a plausible "save the world" plot we haven't seen before. The author might even do it twice. Plot-driven authors pump out the same basic stories and if you've read one or two you have probably read all of that author's stories. Names and places change, but each book is basically a retread. To make up for this, the author may resort to more ridiculous "bigger badder" elements with each new release.

The same thing happens in movie sequels, and it usually flops. You can look at, for example, The Matrix sequels for an example of how the "bigger badder each time" thing just doesn't work. You need more.

If the stories are character-driven, the story tension and level of interest can arise from an almost infinite set of variables. An author whose stories are character-driven can write a large number of unique stories. Such an author has staying power in the book market because the story doesn't depend on coming up with some idiotic twist to the same tired plot. Nor do we get the lipstick on the pig effect so common in sequels.

For these reasons, I feel Berenson will be around a while. We'll be buying his books because his characters compel us to keep reading what he writes. Even the minor characters seem real.

Something else struck me about this book after I finished it. It's in English. A rarity.

We readers are frequently assaulted by language abuse on the part of authors. Many seem completely ignorant of standard written English. I hate having to second guess meanings in something that was presumably written for entertainment. The mental gymnastics just aren't appealing.

Pick up any work by John Grisham, and the labor of trying to guess his meaning while wading through the Pidgin English is tiresome. Unfortunately, his books appealed to a market segment that made him a financial success. He helped make Pidgin English acceptable to publishers. Today, you take a risk when buying a book that it's not only going to be a dud but it's going to be a barely comprehensible dud.

Berenson, on the other hand, respects the reader enough to write in straightforward English. I find that to be significant. It's not why I enjoyed the book. Writing correctly is a minimum standard. Berenson's adroit storytelling on top of that is why I enjoyed the book. Having read this novel, I now want to read the two that came before it.

The Silent Man is the third installment in Alex Berenson's series featuring CIA agent John Wells. I have not read the first two books in the series -- The Faithful Spy and The Ghost War -- but although it was clear while reading that I was missing some back story, not having read the earlier books did not impede my understanding of this one. The book has a strong beginning that will keep readers interested: The driver of a tractor intentionally collides with a tanker truck carrying 8000 gallons of gasoline. Meanwhile, a certain Grigory Farzadov, a sympathetic bear of a man, is forced by Muslim extremists to steal material from the Russian nuclear facility where he works as a guard. The two incidents are early steps in a plot to manufacture and detonate a nuclear bomb on American soil. John Wells, of course, is the man who won't let that happen, though he actually doesn't become aware of the threat until we're more than 200 pages into the story. In the first half of the book Wells is instead pursuing a private vendetta and worrying about his relationship with his fiancée, Jennifer Exley.

My reaction to The Silent Man is mixed. When Berenson is writing about the bad guys, his book is very good: his characters are compelling and three-dimensional, and we can identify with them despite that they're up to no good. When reading these sections, the book cruises along. Unfortunately, the story slows to a crawl during the sections that focus on John Wells and Exley. Wells himself--at least in this outing--is not an interesting character; neither is Exley, though she doesn't have a big role in the book. And the good guys' efforts to thwart the extremists' plot somehow aren't very exciting. I certainly didn't want Farzadov and his minders to succeed with their plans, then, but I wouldn't have cared in the slightest if Wells met his end while combatting them.

-- Debra Hamel

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.

The hero of the newest Berenson novel is once again John Wells. He had been featured in the two previous Berenson books. In this newest book twss
nuclear devices called a Iskander ss-26 missile are. stolen from a Russian
facility. The device is given to Muslim terrorists. They plan on sneaking
the missiles into the United States and building a bomb. In the meantime Pierre Kowalski decides to gain vengance on John Wells for assaulting him in the previous book. John Wells and Jennifer Exley are caught in a traffic jam in Washington D.C. Two motorcycles attack Wells and Exley.In a
tremendous gunfight Exley is wounded. Wells mamages to kill the attackers.
They are traced back to a retired Russian General named Ivan Markov. Wells
goes to Russia and kills several people in Markov's organization but doesn't get him. Kowalski gets panic stricken an calls for a meeting with Wells. He offers information on the missing nuclear missiles if Wells will
not kill him. The CIA posts Wells to the case to locate and stop the nuclear threat. In the meantime the Muslims have gotten the missiles into
the United States and are building a nuclear bomb. It becomes a race against time to stop the nuclear disaster. Of course the book has an exciting ending. Be sure to buy this book. It is good.

The author did a good job making the plot credible. And humanizing the characters - both the good and bad. Unlike many novels, this one didn't resort to overly complicated technical and political discourses to move the story forward. The scary part is that the manner in which the terrorists got the bomb-making materials did not seem all that far-fetched. That's part of what makes the story so compelling.

John Wells, in preceding novels, has managed to save the world from a Sino-American war, spent 10 years in Afghanistan fighting the Taliban, and now is asked to rescue the United States from a nuclear explosion. How much can be asked of one guy? This tight, intricate plot begins with the theft of two atomic bombs from a Russian facility as part of an Islamic terrorist plot.

The story traces the journey of the two devices and the various people involved in using the uranium in them to create one bomb intended to be exploded in Washington, D.C., during the State of the Union address, or alternatively in Manhattan or some other target. It is up to John Wells (not to mention the rest of the CIA, FBI, Homeland Security and other domestic and foreign agencies) to find the plotters and the bombs.

About the only criticism about the plot is the relative ease with which two atomic bombs are removed from the Russian depot. It's hard to believe security is so lax. But it's necessary for the story, and can be overlooked. The story is dramatic, and holds the reader's interest throughout, and is recommended.

Gripping - Can Wells save USA in time again? This installment brings out more of Wells's personal feelings and relationship issues. He's beginning to lose himself in his job. Can he turn this around in the next installment? I'm pulling for him.

I was quite happy when I stumbled across this book because I had thoroughly enjoyed "The Faithful Spy" when I listened to it on my iPhone earlier in the year. "The Silent Man" was at least as entertaining and is exactly what I look for in this genre of books -- interesting characters, a plot rooted in plausibility and a somewhat unpredictable storyline that moves along at a good clip. My only -- very minor -- complaint occurred about two-thirds of the way through the book there were a few pages where some US Government agencies, and their capabilities and roles and responsibilities did not jive with reality. All in all, a this is a highly recommended read if you are a fan of this genre.

I really enjoyed this thriller. The lead character is a bit of a stock character, the silent man, a deadly do-it-alone type that could have been lifted from a hundred thrillers, westerns, and detective novels.

What makes this book fun to read is the attention to detail, the plausible and real nature of the terrorism (involving nuclear materials, jihadists), and the crisp pace of the writing.

If I had one quibble, it would be that the main character is an agent of the CIA, but for major parts of the book where he is tracking a possible nuclear attack on the United States, he is a loner, and permitted to be such by the major intelligence agencies of the West. This makes for good drama and a fine movie script, but only the fast paced action keeps a reader from pausing and laughing right out loud at this absurdity.

Onward! The story reads itself, and the action is balanced by nuance and craft. And hey, I read this book in two days, because it was fun!

This novel was rather different than the others I have read, namely because of the setting (Washington DC) and the characters involved (terrorists, homeland security, etc.). I was very interested by the content, as I have never read any other book by this author. Because he included information in the beginning concerning the main character, I was able to pick up pretty well on the past experiences in order to understand what was going on in the present story and why. The storyline was very intense, as it included everything from action to adventure and betrayal and romance, which made for a very interesting blend. I also appreciated the technical information concerning various weaponry and systems, because it helped me to visualize the tools and objects that were so pivotal to the occurrences in the story. In that way, it reminded me of a Clancy novel, but this author has written something all his own.

"The Silent Man" is a decent beach book, nothing more. It is an escapist thriller that at times reads more like a screenplay than a novel. I really wanted to like this book more, they way I liked Mr. Berenson's first effort, "The Faithful Spy" (which I gave 5 stars). John Wells in "The Faithful Spy" is a complex, dynamic and conflicted character; in "The Silent Man" he has become a one-dimensional automaton who inspires little sympathy. Also, the plot of "The Silent Man" revolves around the efforts of some Islamic terrorists to detonate a nuclear device in the United States. Didn't Berenson employ a similar story line in his first book? I would have enjoyed something a bit more original (though I have to admit, the author's technical descriptions of the Russian nuclear storage facility where the weapons were stolen and of the making of a nuclear weapon from stolen fissile material were fascinating.)

And finally, there are some annoying errors that a good editor should have caught. For example, when describing an early scene set in Russia, Berenson reflects on the Battle of Stalingrad where "the Germans and Nazis" engaged a protracted death struggle (World War II would have been a lot shorter if the Germans and Nazis had gone at each other instead of the Russians). And towards the end of the book, when they are flying to Upstate New York to look for the bad guys, they pass over Gettysburg, but Wells muses that he is too preoccupied with the current crisis to think about "Grant and Lee" leading the Blue and Gray in battle. The only problem with this passing observation is that Grant wasn't at Gettysburg! He was 1,000 miles away in Vicksburg; Meade was the Union commander at Gettysburg.

In sum, I simply wish that Berenson had spent as much time on "The Silent Man" as he did on "The Faithful Spy." I'm confident that both he and I would be more pleased with the result.