• The Unlikely Spy

  • By: Daniel Silva
  • Narrated by: Michael Page
  • Length: 18 hrs and 7 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (3,249 ratings)

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The Unlikely Spy  By  cover art

The Unlikely Spy

By: Daniel Silva
Narrated by: Michael Page
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Publisher's summary

#1 New York Times bestselling author Daniel Silva’s celebrated debut novel, The Unlikely Spy, is “A roller-coaster World War II adventure that conjures up memories of the best of Ken Follett and Frederick Forsyth” (The Orlando Sentinel).

“In wartime,” Winston Churchill wrote, “truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies.” For Britain’s counterintelligence operations, this meant finding the unlikeliest agent imaginable - a history professor named Alfred Vicary, handpicked by Churchill himself to expose a highly dangerous, but unknown, traitor. The Nazis, however, have also chosen an unlikely agent. Catherine Blake is the beautiful widow of a war hero, a hospital volunteer - and a Nazi spy under direct orders from Hitler: uncover the Allied plans for D-Day...

©2009 Daniel Silva (P)2009 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

“Evocative...memorable...a classic World War II espionage tale.” (The Washington Post)

“Briskly suspenseful.” (The New York Times)

“Layers of depth and intrigue...Silva succeeds with panache.” (USA Today)

What listeners say about The Unlikely Spy

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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  • 1 Stars
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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

The Unlikely Spy

I read/listened to this book as a "test" of Daniel Silva. It suffices to say that after this one, I went and read/listened to all of this books in one shot. The strength of this books are their characters are believable, story lines are complex, and most of all, writing is good. I like his mastery of the language and descriptive phrases. I often want to read the same book twice. This book in particular is good for any WWII spy novel fans, since it does a good job mixing real historical events and fiction.

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100 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Amazingly well done!!

What made the experience of listening to The Unlikely Spy the most enjoyable?

After 200+ audiobooks, FINALLY! This one was far and away the best listen ever. Period. What an amazing job. The voices were done perfectly. It was like listening to a play, or a movie. The story was really good, but made spectacular by the way it was produced. Scott Brick could take lessons from Mr. Page! I was not so sure I wanted to get this, took the chance. So glad I did. Cudo's to Mr. Silva and Mr. Page, as well as to those who worked on making this a total joy.

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60 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Riveting

This story has an excellent plot revolving around counterintelligence operations during WWII. The character development is excellent. Also, the narration is superb - English accents, American accents, Scottish, Irish, German (and multiple voices of each) even an excellent Winston Churchill. The story has many characters and Michael Page makes each of them different and brings them to life. Highly recommended.

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51 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Just as good as the Eye of the Needle.

I had read some of the other reviews and was a little worried when I bought this book. I was not disappointed at all. I found it as good any of Follett's work. The Eye of the needle was a very good book and I found Silva did as well if not better with The Unlikely Spy.

I will listen to this book a second time. The Unlikely Spy is one of Silva's best works.

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46 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Disapointed

Been reading Silva's series about Gabriel Allon for years. He's a great writer and weaves sophisticated thrillers with the best. I was excited to find this book to listen to on a two-day car trip but was really disappointed with the frequency of profanity and "soft porn" included which are not usually found in his other books. I didn't finish the book and wonder if his publisher pushed him to include something more "edgy" in this one.

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42 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

Not Typical. Or That Good.

Sorry, but this is just not his best. Must've bought this one on sale after having listened (or read in print) some of his others. Let's say it was his first, and therefore he was young and inexperienced (and randy), but WAY too much focus on the physical and not enough on the plot. His other (Gabriel Allon) books are much more developed and better written. Not much to recommend this one: if you like WWII there are much better books, and if you like Daniel Silva, well, that TOO.

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34 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Naration is a "Tour De Force"

As we've come the expect with Daniel Silva, the plot is fast paced, the characters well developed and plenty of twists and turns.
The naration is probably the best I've ever heard during my 3+ years with Audible.com. Michael Page is incredibly talented with the ability to create some of the best character voices and accents I've encountered. Bravo performance!

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32 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Great Narration. Excellent WWII Spy Novel

This book combines some good history (although characters are fictional basic story is true) and a spy thriller. You have your British MI agents, evil nazi spies, and even Hitler and Winston Churchill making an appearance in this book. The pace is pretty fast and you won't want to stop listening once you get into story. The basic theme is how the British fooled the Nazis into believing the plans for the invasion was at the major port of Calais versus at Normandy. The Nazis believed the ruse because they held their forces back expecting the real attack near the Dutch border. It never came and by the time they realized they had been fooled it was too late. The combined forces of England and America had a firm foothold in France. The book focuses on the building of hugh concrete piers that were towed to Normandy and sunk to create a man-made harbor. By the third day of the invasion troops and material were being driven ashore from ships in the Bay of Normandy.

This book has been out there for awhile, but if you like WWII books you will enjoy it. It is very similar to Ken Follet's Eye of the Needle.

The narration is quite excellent with single narrator having to do both Hitler and Churchill.

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21 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Good once it got going

The first part of the book is a rehash of WWII, which, if you know about WWII history, you probably don't need. Once it got into the characters the book was built around it got much better.

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20 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Silva's first novel is not about Gabriel Allon

Daniel Silva has written 16 novels with the protagonist being Israeli spy Gabriel Allon, but many Silva fans are unaware he released three novels before the Allon series. His first novel was released in 1996 and is titled The Unlikely Spy. The setting is late WWII England and the unlikely spy is history professor Alfred Vicary who is tasked by Churchill to keep Germany from getting access to D-Day plans. It is really a wonderful and clever novel that is well worth listening to. Silva's next two novels are the Michael Osbourne series which are not very good.

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17 people found this helpful