Daniel Silva’s The Mark of the assassinwas a solid read, but I expected more. Michael and Elizabeth Osbourne were good characters but the parts of the book dealing with their relationship didn’t seem authentic. Also, the politics involved in the story were too cynical–even for me.
As always, I won’t give away important pieces of plot. The Mark of the Assassin centers around the explosion of flight 002. A body found near the scene of the explosion has the hallmark of a killer Michael Osbourne knows too well.
I liked the tension between Michael and Elizabeth revolving around their attempts to have a child and his career; however, the tension seemed too quickly handled. The way they seemed to settle all difficulties by having sex also struck me as unrealistic. Admittedly, I haven’t been in the kinds of situations the Osbournes were facing, but I doubt I could just have sex and consider them resolved.
The politics involved in the story were too extreme. Even int the climate of today, which is even way more polarized than were the politics of the late ’90s when the book was written, I can’t imagine people doing such sinister things to advance their agenda. Stealing elections is one thing. Killing hundreds of innocent people is quite another.
The Mark of the Assassin had its entertaining points, but it wasn’t realistic enough for my liking. I haven’t given up on the Michael Osbourne series, but it will be a little while before I try again.