Silent Cats: Deadly Dance by J. D. Wallace tells the story of two international super spies, Alyn “Kat” David of the Israeli Mossad, and Marcus “Pantera” Sinclair from the American CIA. I don’t feel like I’m spoiling anything if I tell you that Kat and her two daughters are dead within the first ten pages, especially when that is mentioned in the back cover description. Marcus, her husband, is told the news and immediately rushes to identify the bodies of his wife and children. Once he is by their side, he remembers exactly how he and Kat met sixteen years before, as well as the better part of the first year that they knew one another. It’s these memories that make up the largest part of Silent Cats: Deadly Dance, and they take the reader on a roller coaster of emotions.
This book is a high-octane thriller from the the start. Military and covert action scenes are described with an intensity that comes from a writer who seemingly knows exactly what he’s talking about. That familiarity with the material really allows the reader to trust Wallace as an authority to this secretive world where few can be believed, and even fewer can be trusted. The other part about this novel that I really enjoyed is the building of the relationship between Kat and Pantera. It doesn’t go as one would expect, and it is certainly not perfect from the start. Each of them has to work to gain the other’s trust, and that is a long, bumpy, and often painful road for both.
There were two minor issues that I had with this book. The first is the plot structure. As this is supposed to be the first book in a series, I understand why the ending was effectively the first part of the story, however, I don’t think it was necessary. It leaves the novel with a slight feeling of being incomplete because the narrative starts with this major catalytic event and then drops sixteen years into the past to tell the story of how the two main characters met, without giving anything of what happened over that span of more than a decade. I can’t say too much without spoiling the story, so unfortunately I’m going to have to leave it at that. My other issue was the chapter breaks. Wallace does a decent job in this respect, but I feel like some of the breaks just happen at odd times, in the middle of scenes. The novel has 114 short chapters, plus an epilogue. I feel like many of those chapters could have easily been combined together to make more cohesive scenes without some of the odd interruptions.
Despite the two minor structural issues, I really enjoyed this novel and had a great time reading it. I would highly recommend it for fans of thrillers, spy stories, and romance. You won’t be disappointed.
Silent Cats: Deadly Dance can be purchased on Amazon.
The Verdict for Silent Cats: Deadly Dance:
4 out of 5
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Until next time,
Stay nerdy, my friends.
Kdub's Geekspot 