Despite my interest in the subject, I was never able to read The Da Vinci Code. The writing was so atrocious, the pace so obtuse, the characters so two-dimensional that the poor paperback took flying lessons across the room one too many times and the binding finally broke, scattering the yellowing pages to the wind. I ended up borrowing an audio copy from a friend and, as I was commuting 154 miles a day round-trip back then and therefore a captive audience, I managed to get through it, cursing and screaming and pounding the dashboard from beginning to end.

Recently I heard about, maybe on Twitter or Facebook, somewhere thereabouts, another book with a similar theme. At some point I decided to check it out. I read the blurbs, the book description and decided I was interested enough to take the next step. One of the many things I like about eBooks is the ability to download a portion, a little something to whet the appetite, so I did just that. By the third sentence I was hooked. By the third page, I said to hell with it and bought the book.

Silver by Steven Savile is everything you could hope for in a thriller: a fast, exciting pace, a well wrought and fresh plot line, dynamic, well-rounded, well defined characters and some of the best writing I’ve seen in a thriller in a good while. If Dan Brown could write half as well as Steven Savile, The Da Vinci Code would have been a much more tolerable read.

There are six main characters in Silver: Sir Charles Wyndham, Noah Larkin, Ronan Frost, Orla Nyrén, Jude Lethe and Konstantin Khavin and, as Noah Larkin observes, each has his/her own story, each their own flaws. Mr. Savile manages to keep each true to his/her own unique voice, not always the easiest of tasks in a multiple protagonist story. Throw in some great secondary characters, a triple dose of bad guys, a backer’s dozen worth of martyrs, an assassination or two or three and a whole lot of innocent dead people coupled with an interesting twist on an old Biblical tale, all of it woven together with some seriously great writing, and you’ve got a book that is hard, if not impossible, to put down until the last page is turned. Had I not just started my own third novel, I would have read this in a single sitting. As it was, it was one of those rare books where I found myself racing toward the end while at the same time not wanting to turn that last page.

Silver is published by Variance Publishing and is available on their site as well as at Smashwords, Amazon and, I’m sure, many other places. From my understanding, Mr. Savile is working on a sequel. Frankly, I can’t wait until it’s released and this time, I won’t bother with the sample. I’ll just buy it outright.