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Silva Does It Again!
As suspenseful as book one...
Engrossing
The Marching Season
Disappointing follow-up

The Marching Season
Daniel Silva
Manufacturer: Signet
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Mark of the Assassin
The Unlikely Spy
The Kill Artist
The English Assassin
The Confessor

ASIN: 045120932X
Release Date: 2004-01-06

Amazon.com

The Good Friday agreement that promised to bring peace to the embattled Protestants and Catholics of Northern Ireland is jeopardized by a new paramiltary group bent on destroying the truce. Michael Osbourne, the hero of Silva's previous thriller, The Mark of the Assassin, is rerecruited by the CIA when Douglas Cannon--his father-in-law, a former senator, and the new ambassador to the Court of St. James--is targeted for death by the Ulster Freedom Brigade. Osbourne has long since given up on the spying game and is reluctant to be drawn back into it again. Then he discovers that the Brigade has shopped the contract on Senator Cannon to October, the assassin who narrowly missed killing Osbourne a few years ago but succeeded in murdering the woman he once loved. It's a good setup for a political thriller, with nonstop action that moves from Belfast to Armagh, New York to Washington, London to Mykonos. What really notches up the suspense is the double-dealing in the corridors of power, particularly the CIA and a secret organization called the Society--a nasty assemblage of politicos, spymasters, arms merchants, and killers bent on destabilizing nascent peacemaking efforts all over the globe. Down but not out at the conclusion of Silva's latest, the Society and Osbourne will likely be back for a return engagement the next time warring factions attempt to beat their swords. In fact, as the director of the Society says in the last chapter, "The Kosovo Liberation Front would like our help: Gentlemen, we're back in business." --Jane Adams

Book Description

The New York Times Bestseller by the author of The Confessor.

When the Good Friday peace accords are shattered by three savage acts of terrorism, Northern Ireland is blown back into the depths of conflict. And after his father-in-law is nominated to become the new American ambassador to London, retired CIA agent Michael Osbourne is drawn back into the game. He soon discovers that his father-in-law is marked for execution. And that he himself is once again in the crosshairs of a killer known as October, one of the most merciless assassins the world has ever known...

Customer Reviews:

Silva Does It Again!.......2007-03-12

Silva never lets me down. I have now read all of his books.

As suspenseful as book one..........2007-03-06

The Marching Season by Daniel Silva is the sequel to The Mark of the Assassin and is every bit as suspenseful as the first book.

The beginning of The Marching Season takes place in Northern Ireland, where a group of Protestants are upset over the Good Friday peace accords. Calling themselves the Ulster Freedom Brigade, they orchestrate three terrorist acts throughout the United Kingdom. They are "dedicated to the preservation of the Protestant way of life in Northern Ireland and the preservation of British rule."

Michael Osbourne is a former CIA agent who battled wits with a hired assassin, code-named October, in The Mark of the Assassin. He quit the agency at the end of book one. But his former boss, Adrian Carter, convinces Osbourne to return to the agency to run the division of counterterrorism in Northern Ireland. Osbourne also has a personal stake in this new assignment: his father-in-law, the former senator Douglas Cannon, has been named as the new ambassador to England. The Ulster Freedom Brigade has made it clear that they will punish anyone they feel has had a hand in the peace process and the Americans are not exempt. The new ambassador is definitely a target. Unfortunately for Osbourne, the Ulster Freedom Brigade gets assistance from The Society for International Development and Cooperation, as well as their hired assassin, October. The super-secret society actually promotes "constant, controlled global tension through covert operations." Their goal is to "make money and protect their own interests."

Silva's writing is always first rate and he has firsthand knowledge of both inside the beltway and working inside the intelligence community. In describing how the CIA would work on a project with MI5 and MI6, and who would run the operation, he muses "the second question was more difficult because it involved turf, and in the world of intelligence, turf is protected at all costs, oftentimes better than secrets."

Once again, the one thing that prevented me from giving The Marching Season five stars is that I thought the ending was a total stretch. Still, it's a good read and a thrilling story and I'm hoping we'll see more of Osbourne in the future.

Engrossing.......2006-12-26

Of all of Silva's books, I've enjoyed The Unlikely Spy the most, but I've not regretted reading any of his others. My wife recently read her first Silva book, The Prince of Fire, in one day, and enjoyed it a great deal, which is noteworthy because she's not a fan of the international political thriller. I read The Marching Season after the MotA, and agree with the reviewer who commented these two should be read in sequence. The plot of the Marching Season links isolated sponsorship of terrorism in Northern Ireland and the Middle East with a cabal of globalists. This view is troubling and thought-provoking and Silva draws these connections without cynicism and hinting of conspiracies. The Marching Season features historical characters like Queen Elizabeth II, Tony Blair and Gerry Adams dealing with issues in plausible settings, using realistic dialogue. Silva's portraits of Adams and Blair are interesting - for example, he states the Adams has quite a temper, and that Blair is an avid reader and eats unusually fast. Such anecdotes add depth to this work.

Some of the plot turns are improbable. Certainly the climactic physical confrontation between Osbourne and Delaroche is cinematically far-fetched, with Osborne clinging to Delarouche's wrist. Another unrealistic scene occurs between Rebecca Wells, the Irish terrorist accomplice, and a British government official. Wells spies on a government official by sleeping with him and peeking into his official papers at his flat while he sleeps. After the British determine their official is compromised, they instruct him to have Wells meet him once more in his flat to bait her with misinformation. I think Wells would have sensed that the official was under tremendous strain (he commits suicide because he was in love with Wells) and she would have easily suspected the setup.

I enjoyed the Marching Season as much, if not more than the MotA, and somewhat more than the Prince of Fire. All of Silva's books are absorbing reads, and leave me feeling more educated about real-world political events. I wish three things from Silva's future books: 1) He should write another Osbourne book. 2) Like Follett, or Greg Iles, he should try other genres than the modern-day spy thriller. 3) He should strive for to be a realistic as possible in all his scenes and effects, even if he has to sacrifice what some readers might call `entertainment value'.

The Marching Season.......2006-08-28

I rated this book OK because the story didn't grab my interest and it took me some time to get into it. I have all of his books and his more recent books are much much better.

Disappointing follow-up.......2006-04-03

After having read "The Mark of the Assassin" I was looking forward to read this follow up. Unfortunately the book could not live up to my expectations.
Even if the lead characters are all the same and the conflict in Northern Ireland is insightful and interesting the story is much simpler this time. Even worse - the way they bring down the Ulster Freedom Brigade is so simple and unrealistic it almost hurts. (Such a simple trap is all it takes? Give me a break...)
After having finished this book I could not get rid of the feeling that the author quickly needed a follow-up to his big (and first) success and did not take enough time to develop a better story.
Too bad, a wasted opportunity...

The Science Fiction Hall of Fame Vol IIA (2 A): Call Me Joe; Who Goes There?; Nerves; Universe; The Marching Morons; Vintage Season; ... And Then There ... Three; The Time Machine; With Folded Hands

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The Science Fiction Hall of Fame Vol IIA (2 A): Call Me Joe; Who Goes There?; Nerves; Universe; The Marching Morons; Vintage Season; ... And Then There ... Three; The Time Machine; With Folded Hands
Poul Anderson , Jr. (Don A. Stuart) John W. Campbell , Lester del Rey , Robert A. Heinlein , C.M. Kornbluth , Jack Williamson , H.G. Wells , Cordwainer Smith , and Theodore Sturgeon
Manufacturer: Avon Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume One: The Greatest Science Fiction Stories of All Time Chosen by the Members of the Science Fiction Writers of America (SF Hall of Fame)
The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume Two A: The Greatest Science Fiction Novellas of All Time Chosen by the Members of The Science Fiction Writers of America (SF Hall of Fame)
The Science Fiction Hall of Fame (Volume IV)
The SFWA Grand Masters: Volume 3: Lester Del Rey, Frederik Pohl, Damon Knight, A. E. Van Vogt, and Jack Vance (SFWA Grand Master)
Masterpieces: The Best Science Fiction of the 20th Century

ASIN: 0380000385

Reader's Digest Select Editions: The Marching Season By Daniel Silva; We'll Meet Again By Mary Higgins Clark; Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind By Ann B. Ross; 8.4 By Peter Hernon (245)

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Reader's Digest Select Editions: The Marching Season By Daniel Silva; We'll Meet Again By Mary Higgins Clark; Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind By Ann B. Ross; 8.4 By Peter Hernon (245)

Manufacturer: Reader's Digest
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000FF8GWO

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The Marching Season
Daniel Silva
Manufacturer: Random House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Spy Stories & Tales of Intrigue | Thrillers | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

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Similar Items:

The Mark of the Assassin
The Unlikely Spy
The Confessor
A Death in Vienna

ASIN: 0297643401

Book Description

It is the first uncertain years of the Northern Ireland peace process. In Belfast, Dublin and London three simultaneous terrorist attacks shatter the hope that the bloodshed finally may be over. Although suspicion immediately falls on Catholic Republicans, it quickly becomes clear that the perpetrators are Protestant Loyalists, a new terror group called the Ulster Freedom Brigade. They have but one goal - to destroy the peace process.

Michael Osbourne, the hero of Silva's second novel, The Mark of the Assassin, has quit the CIA, bitter and disillusioned. He is living quietly in New York, struggling with the responsibilities of fatherhood and the tedium of early retirement. But when the President chooses his father-in-law, former US Senator, to be the next American ambassador to Britain, Osbourne is drawn into battle with some of the most ruthless and violent men on earth.

Osbourne is rehired by the CIA with the mission of preventing the Ulster Freedom Brigade from destroying the peace proccess. What Osbourne does not know is that the terrorists have hired the world's deadliest assassin; none other than Jean-Paul Delaroche, the title character in The Mark of the Assassin, to murder the ambassador.

The Marching Season takes place in the backstreets of West Belfast, the rolling hills of Armagh and, as the locale for the assassination a country estate in Norfolk.

Reader's Digest Select Editions: The Marching Season, We'll Meet Again; 8.4; Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind (Reader's Digest Select Editions, Volume 5)
Average customer rating:
Reader's Digest Select Editions: The Marching Season, We'll Meet Again; 8.4; Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind (Reader's Digest Select Editions, Volume 5)

Manufacturer: Reader's Digest
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000CERD54

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The Marching Season
Daniel Silva
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000O1HFJ4

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The Marching Season
Frank Muller
Manufacturer: Recorded Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio Cassette

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ASIN: 0788730975

The Marching Season
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The Marching Season
Daniel Silva
Manufacturer: Signet
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000HIHR4C

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The Marching Season

Manufacturer: Orion
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Spy Stories & Tales of Intrigue | Thrillers | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0752826492

Daniel Silva - Unlikely Spy, Mark of the Assassin, Marching Season, Kill Artist, English Assassin, Confessor, Death in Vienna, Prince of Fire, Messenger - Hardcover
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Daniel Silva - Unlikely Spy, Mark of the Assassin, Marching Season, Kill Artist, English Assassin, Confessor, Death in Vienna, Prince of Fire, Messenger - Hardcover
Daniel Silva
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000QUFKWW

Product Description

9 Hardcover edition books.

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