My reading pleasure has been focused on mysteries for the past several years, but I still love a good spy thriller. We had a couple books by Daniel Silva laying around, but I hadn’t read anything by him yet. So last week, I gave “The Mark of the Assassin” a try. 

That was one very good book. Not great. Not in a Robert Ludlum category (“The Bourne Identity” is still the best thriller I’ve ever read, and so much better than the movie, which was not too shabby). But satisfying.

Silva’s hero in this one was Michael Osbourne, a CIA guy who was pitted against a deadly assassin-for-hire. The plot relied on the government, including the presidency, being infiltrated by bad guys with evil agendas, and that usually strains credulity for me. But such are the tools of authors of international thrillers.

I decided to go straight into a second Silva novel, “The Confessor.” This one, set mostly in Italy with stops in other European countries (the US never entered the picture), involved intrigue in the Vatican. Here, the infiltration of bad guys involved the upper echelons of the Roman Catholic Church. The plot focused around the Pope’s silence during World War II as Jews in Italy were being rounded up and carted off to death camps. 

In this book, and in others by Silva, the hero is Gabriel Allon, an art restorer who, in his spare time, is a top-flight Israeli operative who had become legendary for carrying out numerous assassinations of Palestinian terrorists. 

Both books started rather slow, I thought, as Silva introduced an awful lot of characters. But I enjoyed the books, and will no doubt read more Silva thrillers. Especially ones involving Gabriel Allon.

I highly, HIGHLY recommend David Sanger’s book “The Inheritance: The World Obama Confronts and the Challenges to American Power.” Sanger, Chief Washington Correspondent for the New York Times, really helps you understand the dynamics in dealing with various countries. We hear lots of posturing from political pundits on cable news, with simplistic, hardline answers to world issues. Sanger takes us behind the scenes, where we see nuance in all its complex varieties.

The book is divided into 8 parts, with 2-4 chapters in each part. The first five parts deal with a specific country.

A couple themes emerge:

• In every chapter, we see how America was unduly distracted by Iraq. We lost opportunity after opportunity because all of our focus was on Iraq. 
• Dick Cheney’s hardline influence dominated US foreign policy during the first six years of the Bush Administration. 
• During his last two years in office, George Bush, having marginalized Dick Cheney, began getting a lot of things right. But in most cases, it was too late.

Part 1: Iran. The first chapter is a fascinating look at Iran’s nuclear program and its efforts to build The Bomb. There is a lot of spycraft here, as America (and other countries) tried to learn what exactly Iran was up to. And there were some incredible breakthrough. When it comes to electronic intelligence-gathering, the USA is GOOD. 

Sanger also tells stories about Ahmadinijad which show what an idiot the Iranian president truly is. 

Part 2: “Afghanistan: How the Good War Went Bad.”

Part 3: “Pakistan: How do You Invade an Ally?” These chapters explain the double-dealing deceptions of Musharaff, the political and religious complexities of this country, and how Pakistan is obsessed with threats from India. We learn much about Pakistan’s nuclear program–how its weapons are secured, and how nuclear technology was given to other countries. 

The chapters tell about numerous diplomatic missions from the US, as we attempted to keep the regime on track and nudge them in certain directions. Sanger tells about US Special Forces attacks into Pakistan, and how the current regime is seriously threatened by its own internal Taliban.

Part 4: North Korea: The Nuclear Renegade that Got Away.” This section begins with the story of the Syrian nuclear installation that Israel destroyed in 2007. It was being built by North Koreans right next door to Iraq–but we didn’t know about it. Israel, on the other hand, had pictures from inside the facility. This section mostly illuminates the failed approach of the Bush Administration.

Part 5: “China: New Torch, Old Dragons.” This is a fascinating look at modern-day China. While we were bogged down in Iraq and Afghanistan, China was gobbling up and investing in resources throughout the rest of the world, especially in Africa. It’s a bit worrisome.

Part 6: “The Three Vulnerabilities.” Sanger goes deep in explaining how the US is vulnerable to nuclear attack, biological attack, and cyber-attack (triggering economic collapse). These are scary chapters.

The book represents excellent reporting, with behind-the-scenes stuff none of us have heard about before (and never will hear about on shallow cable news). If you really want to understand these countries, and the complexities of US foreign policy in dealing with them, I highly recommend “The Inheritance.”