September 5, 2007

Novelist Daniel Silva has assumed the place among espionage writers once held by John LeCarre and Len Deighton. But the stories he invents are not set in the Cold War but in against a new backdrop: our war on radical Islamists and their culture of death.

His most recent book, “The Secret Servant,” takes as its back story the rise of radical Islam in the Netherlands and Great Britain. That Silva does so while pushing a compelling story forward is a testament to his art. That he did so at all underscores his sense of mission: A reader is informed as he or she is entertained.

Popular culture still hasn’t moved to embrace the world in which we live, stymied perhaps by the strange nature of our enemy, or perhaps just too afraid to do so.  Daniel Silva has done so, setting an example for other writers and artists, and providing a great read at the same time. Try “The Secret Servant,” you’ll like it.

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