The attempt fails but Exley is seriously injured, suffering liver and spine injuries which propel Wells to Russia to first confirm Kowalski is at fault and then to Zurich to exact retribution. Kowalski, however, attempts a truce with Wells by advising of an inquiry about beryllium, an essential component needed for a nuclear bomb.  

In Chelyabinsk, Russia a convoy carrying eight nuclear missiles is delayed when a tractor and tanker truck collide allowing for a late arrival at the storage plant and subsequently two of the warheads are stolen. The warheads move from auto to fishing trawler across the Black Sea to Turkey, and then to Germany, Canada, and ultimately upstate New York where Sayyid Nasiji, a chemical engineer educated in Germany with an interest in nuclear physics uses the components to build a nuclear bomb. Nasiji lost his entire family to the Shia but turns his anger toward the USA. He is aided by a staunch anti-American and an Egyptian surgeon now practicing medicine in New York.

 The Silent Man is the third novel to feature John Wells and the weakest of the three. There is too much detail about the plot to steal the nuclear warheads as well as the materials and methods required to build a nuclear explosive. The book could have been at least 50 pages shorter and the reading much more enticing.

There is not nearly as much action and intrigue in The Silent Man as the Edgar Award winning The Faithful Spy. This international thriller does take the reader to Russia, Germany, Switzerland, Canada, and the United States and Berenson's portraits of those locales enhances the story. It does help to have read the first two episodes and those readers will enjoy The Silent Man much more if they excuse the excessive detail and lack of action in exchange for an update on John Well and Jennifer Exley.

--Jerry Solot