In Secret Service

Justin Brady's review of In Secret Service by Mitch Silver

I recently finished 'In Secret Service' by Mitch Silver. Apparently this is his first novel, and in my opinion, his inexperience glaringly presents itself in the format of the story. I could tell that he put alot of research into writing this novel and that he came up with some very creative ideas in creating a fictional plot with many twists and turns. Alot of effort was put into the creation of this book. Which is why I can't understand why he chose the format he did to write the story in. There are two story's going on at the same time. The overall master story is about the main character, Amy, reading a memoir type letter written to her from Ian Fleming, of James Bond fame, about a secret plot regarding British Royalty and how they were involved with the Nazi's in WW2.
The first 3/4 of the book is Amy reading this memoir, with the occasional break about how Amy is getting on the plane, being chased on the plane, and how the person sitting next to her on the plane is murdered, etc. Notice I said occasional breaks, with the majority of the book being Amy reading the manuscript. Although the manuscript is interesting, it is too long winded for its own good. The breaks in Amy reading the script and something else happening were more interesting and exciting than the manuscript. It was almost a chore to read about someone else reading a manuscript. This idea, though creative, was not pulled off very well and could have been presented in a different, more interesting way. But anyway....
After Amy gets off the plane and is almost done reading the manuscript, is when I really started to like the story. There's quite alot of chase scenes, people getting killed, drama, excitement, love story, etc. I really enjoyed the overall arcing storyline and wished Mr. Silver would have focused more on this storyline than the fictional Ian Fleming story. If I wouldn't have been reading this book for a book club selection and felt somewhat obligated to finish the book, I probably would have put the book down around page 100. If I would have, I would have missed an exciting ending and wouldn't have even guessed it was a good ending.
Due to the exciting ending and the cool twist at the end regarding the relationship between the fiance and one of the characters in the manuscript, I am giving this book 7 stars out of 10. With the majority of the stars being earned due to the ending of the book.
Mr. Silver has some potential to produce some good stories in the future and I wish him good luck in his future novels!