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Christopher Marlowe was probably the greatest English dramatist before Shakespeare. Marlowe's dramas have heroic themes featuring a personality who is destroyed by his own passion and ambition. Some scholars believe Marlowe was a spy in the secret service of Elizabeth I, first started by Francis Walsingham the legendary spy master or intelligencer. Marlowe was murdered at the young age of 29. Kate Morgan is a private investigator with one of the world's leading firms, the Slade Group, run by Jeremy Slade, an ex-CIA officer and gourmet cook. In college, Kate majored in English Renaissance studies. She was especially interested in curiosity, secrets and forbidden knowledge. Cidro Medina, a regular client of the Slade Group, returns to his home in London to find the police and the body of a dead man. Apparently the man was after a 16th century English manuscript that had just come into Medina's hands. Because of Kate Morgan's background in Renaissance studies, she is assigned to the case. Kate soon discovers the manuscript could be a collection of intelligence reports compiled by Walsingham's right-hand man Philippes. Kate hopes that while she deciphers the reports she will find a clue that will lead to why someone would hire a thief to steal the manuscript. In addition, since Kate will be in Europe, she is asked to seek out and meet Luca de Tolomei, an Italian art dealer who has just received a shipment from an Iranian intelligence officer. Kate finds herself moving back and forth between the world of letters and the covert underworld. Hopefully, she will not meet an early end the way Marlowe did. THE INTELLIGENCER is Leslie Silbert's debut novel. It is said an author should write what they know and Silbert has certainly done that. Silbert is a Renaissance scholar with degrees from Harvard and Oxford, and she is a private investigator with a group in New York run by an ex-CIA agent. Every thriller needs action and this one has plenty. The chapters in the novel are shifted between the present featuring Kate Morgan and the late 16th century with Christopher Marlowe. The best-written parts of THE INTELLIGENCER are the sections on Marlowe. Silbert also does a good job describing torture used in the 16th century and in present-day Iran. There is a cast of thousands in THE INTELLIGENCER. At least it seemed that way. Kate is young, good looking, intelligent (sound familiar?) and very good at what she does both as an academician and investigator. She must take lots of vitamins to keep up with the action. She comes equipped with all the necessities an investigator might need including an underwire bra that records audio. Every girl should have one! I tend to be very forgiving with a novel, especially a debut, if I have had a good time reading it and have learned something. I did both with this novel. The one thing I can't forgive from any author is leaving the ending dangling. Kate Morgan has to come back to tackle some unfinished business. I will welcome Kate back and hope that Silbert learns more about her fledgling craft as an author, and learns how to write a satisfying end.
Reviewed by Lane Wright, July 2004
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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