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    The Silent Man
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    The Silent Man
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    The Silent Man
    Audiobook12 hours

    The Silent Man

    Written by Alex Berenson

    Narrated by George Guidall

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    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.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateFeb 10, 2009
    ISBN9781101022481
    Unavailable
    The Silent Man
    Author

    Alex Berenson

    Alex Berenson is a former New York Times reporter and award-winning novelist. He attended Yale University and joined the Times in 1999, where he covered everything from the drug industry to Hurricane Katrina and served as a correspondent in Iraq. In 2006, The Faithful Spy, his debut novel, won the Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for Best First Novel. He has since written twelve more novels and a nonfiction book, Tell Your Children. Currently, he lives in the Hudson Valley with his wife and children.

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    Reviews for The Silent Man

    4/5

    23 ratings11 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Great series. I wish they were still available on Scribd.
    • 4/5
      More intelligent, informed and sophisticated than the average thriller about terrorism. Listened to the audiobook, the reader did an incredible job bringing dialogues to life. Hats off to both, writer and actor.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      This is another good book in the John Wells series by Alex Berenson. It's the third book. In the first two, CIA agent John Wells has pretty much saved the world, or at least the US, so it's hard to imagine the author being able to concoct another plot that would live up to the first two. But he does. The book opens with a Russian scientist at a nuclear facility who is pressured into helping to improbably steal two nuclear bombs for Muslim militants. They intend to detonate the bombs in Washington during the State of the Union address. The story of these militants and their travels with the bombs to North America is very interesting.Meanwhile, one morning Wells and his fiance, Jennifer Exley, are on their way to work at the CIA when they are attacked by Russian assassins who are killed after killing some CIA agents and severely wounding Exley. In the previous book, Wells had seriously humiliated a powerful arms dealer who has, in turn, contracted with some Russians to get his revenge. Needless to say, after this attack, Wells is ticked. This doesn't bode well for the arms dealer. Wells flies to Russia to get at and kill the Russians behind the attack and does kill three of them, but has to fly out of the country as he is pursued by the KGB. The arms dealer is so frightened of a pissed off Wells coming for him, that he offers a truce -- information in exchange for letting him live. Wells agrees when he hears the information. It's about the nuclear bomb theft and all hell breaks loose after that. It's a great race to the finish and the finish is almost anticlimactic, but it's still satisfying, in my opinion.However, one of my complaints about the book is Exley's very minor role. She's John's fiance and we barely see or hear anything from her. She's an afterthought. Additionally, in the first book, a lot was made of Wells and his conversion to Islam, but that's almost never broached in this book. I found that strange. Still, it was a good book, an exciting read, and the author has this unique knack of taking implausible sounding scenarios and making them seem entirely realistic. The only other thriller author I've read who does it that well is Forsyth. That's high praise, coming from me. I'd read these books in order, if possible, but it's not necessary -- it stands on its own. Good book. Recommended.
    • 4/5
      The John Wells series is finally hitting its stride. This book was very enjoyable and the back and forth between following the terrorists and Wells worked quite well. 
    • 4/5
      Alex Berenson’s “The Silent Man” was a good read, although it was more similar in nature to many of the espionage/thrillers I’ve read over the last 10 years—a feeling Berenson’s previous two books didn’t give me.This time, CIA agent John Wells and his boss/fiancée Jennifer Exley are targeted for assassination as a result of their involvement with an arms dealer in the previous book, “The Ghost War.” John then sets out to do what he didn’t earlier—take out the arms dealer. But things are never as easy as they seem. The dealer knows something he can use to bargain for his life—a partial trail to individuals who’ve stolen a Russian nuclear bomb and are bringing to the shores of the US.Fans of Vince Flynn will certainly enjoy Berenson’s first three books, but I think they’ll find “The Silent Man” to be a little more flat, a little too predictable, and a little too clichéd than the earlier novels.
    • 4/5
      This is actually the third in a series about John Wells, an independent-minded CIA agent. Wells is a complicated character with a capacity for violence and a severe commitment to seeing a mission through to completion.Alex Benrenson is pretty talented writer and I got wrapped up in the story right away. Even minor charcters are fleshed-out and real and the situations and perils are all too realistic.I will go back and read the two prior novels about Wells.
    • 2/5
      This is the third book in the series, and the stoic male superhero is still a cypher. In books I and II, it didn't annoy me as much as it does here. There are a couple of good action set pieces, but the best part of the work is the "how to" aspect; that is, how to steal two functional weapons from the Russians and fashion a functional terrorist device. The terrorists are just penciled in as well. So read it and become the first person on your block able to construct a thermonuclear device.
    • 3/5
      I like the John Wells character bt Alex Berenson, but some aspects of the story line are getting old. The tension between him and his CIA bosses is too manufactured. Bereson's research and attnetion to detail are a real strength, making these terror plots frighteningly real.
    • 4/5
      As the action begins, two nuclear weapons are stolen from a Russian nuclear complex.In Zurich, we learn that Pierre Kowalski is seeking revenge for what John Wells did to him when he forced information from him. Now Kowalski has hired a man to kill Wells.If the goal of a thriller is to provide adventure and suspense, then Alex Berenson has accomplished his goal.This is the third John Wells adventure and he remains a heroic, brave and sympathetic character. As a protagonist, Kowalski left something to be desired in giving in so quickly and Sayyed had an interesting history of how he came to want to build the bomb.I did find the plot a bit too complex but the action was there and the story was vastly entertaining.Unaware of the sinister forces plotting for his demise, Wells and his fiancee, Jennifer Exley, are driving to work at the CIA headquarters in Langley, VA.There is a traffic snarl and a bridge is blocked. Being a CIA agent with well tuned preservation skills, Wells senses something amiss. He sees a motorcycle approaching his vehicle with two men on it. The motorcycle is traveling at a fast rate of speed while weaving in and out of traffic. Wells' quick thinking enables him to dispatch the assassins. However, Jennifer is badly wounded.In another part of this complex story, near Ramadi, Iraq, Sayyed Nasiji plots with Sheik Ahmed Faisal. Their goal is to purchase the necessary materials and then assemble a bomb in the United States. They want to give the United States a taste of what Iraq has gone through.Wells is furious about the attempt on his life and injury to Jennifer. He's sure he knows that Kowalski is responsible. Kowalski knows Wells must be coming after him once the attempt on his life failed. However, he comes across information on the nuclear weapons and knows he has something to bargain his life for.
    • 3/5
      A spy thriller with some surprises, not the least is that the protagonist admits to having become a Muslim while serving in Afghanistan.Still I admit to finding some of commentary on politics too depressingly pat for comfort.
    • 5/5
      I've heard great things about the first two John Wells novels, but my experience begins here with the third in the series. And despite having to play catch-up in places, The Silent Man works brilliantly as a stand alone spy thriller. It also makes you want to go back to the beginning of the series and see what Wells has done previously. What sets Berenson's series apart in this crowded espionage genre is his knack for finding that elusive balance between the authentic and the entertaining. Wells, despite being the kind of lethal CIA agent who could become a cliche in the hands of many writers, exhibits a complexity of character and a genuine feel. You really believe that this is a dangerous man, in the same way that Daniel Craig makes you believe that the movie version of James Bond is not an insult to Fleming's concept of the character. This comes across most starkly in the novel's kill scenes, in which Wells often disposes of adversaries in a quick, brutal manner, making the violence so much more convincing than if it had been dragged out in the exaggerated way favored by many authors in the action genre. The plot, too, has a realistic feel from beginning to end, making me believe that this really is how things might play out if an Islamic terrorist group got its hands on Russian nuclear material with the intent of building an atomic weapon and detonating it in a major American City. Peopled with well-developed supporting characters, and displaying a feel for the inner workings of the alphabet soup agencies, there are few places in which the realism of this work breaks down. In fact, the only part of the story that did not ring absolutely true for me was the strange turns in Wells's relationship with Jennifer Exley, as her anger toward him often seemed somewhat contrived. This is, however, a series that I plan to explore fully. The quality of the writing and Wells himself are just too compelling to ignore.