2015-06-17
Gabriel Allon may be a talented, world-renowned restorer of classic paintings, but he's willing to kneecap a Russian spy if necessary. In Silva's (The Heist, 2014, etc.) latest, Allon, bravura field agent for "the Office," Israel's secret spy organization, isn't worried about art supplies. He's after Eamon Quinn, a mercenary who was once the Real IRA's top bomb-maker, who's just killed the widely beloved ex-wife of the future king of England, an "immensely shy and beautiful middle-class girl" who turned out to be "wholly unsuited for life in the royal fishbowl." It turns out the princess was collateral damage, her assassination engineered to lure Allon and Christopher Keller, British SAS veteran-turned-professional assassin, into pursuit. The Russian spy agency has hired Quinn to kill Allon as payback for destroying its plot to blackmail Britain's prime minister into granting North Sea oil rights. Quinn gets a bonus: Keller, his blood-enemy from the days of the Troubles. With Vienna's, London's, and Belfast's mean streets providing atmosphere, Silva deftly weaves together narrative threads and seamlessly drops in back story without boring longtime fans. Allon's always an empathetic protagonist; now Keller's character gets depth and nuance. Allon and Keller, ego and id laser-focused on Quinn, are lured into a London bombing and then a gunfight raid at a Real IRA safe house deep in Bandit Country. The realistic and relentless action is framed by bureaucratic back-stabbing and blame-shifting as MI6's Graham Seymour and MI5's Amanda Wallace are left to explain more than one double, or triple, agent dead or disappeared. This page-turner deepens Allon's legend and illuminates more of his shadowy world, all while cementing Silva's place among the top tier of spy thriller writers.
Simply delicious. If you’re a fan of perennial No. 1 bestselling author Daniel Silva, it’s a must-read. If you’re not a fan, you should be.... Highly recommended.” — Minneapolis Star Tribune
“Allon—the legendary spy, assassin and future chief of Israeli intelligence—is an elegant man working in a brutal business….Few authors in the espionage genre handle violent imagery as gracefully as Silva does.” — Fort Worth Telegram
“A surefire blockbuster....The world needs more men like this Israeli agent. And more authors like Silva.” — Bookreporter.com
“It is a world like no other told by an author like no other. If you are not yet a Silva/Allon fan then you are missing out on one of the best series in modern literature.” — Huffington Post
“Silva delivers another involving spy novel as cat-and-mouse game.” — Booklist
“Silva is a master craftsman, and his ability to keep Allon’s story fresh after so many novels is to be deeply admired. Weaving in information from previous books while maintaining a propulsive pace, Silva has written a novel that longtime fans and first-time readers can enjoy with equal fervor.” — Chris Schluep, Amazon Best Book citation
“Engrossing and riveting.” — Vail Daily
“This page-turner deepens Allon’s legend and illuminates more of his shadowy world, all while cementing Silva’s place among the top tier of spy thriller writers.” — Kirkus
A surefire blockbuster....The world needs more men like this Israeli agent. And more authors like Silva.
Silva is a master craftsman, and his ability to keep Allon’s story fresh after so many novels is to be deeply admired. Weaving in information from previous books while maintaining a propulsive pace, Silva has written a novel that longtime fans and first-time readers can enjoy with equal fervor.
It is a world like no other told by an author like no other. If you are not yet a Silva/Allon fan then you are missing out on one of the best series in modern literature.
Silva delivers another involving spy novel as cat-and-mouse game.
Simply delicious. If you’re a fan of perennial No. 1 bestselling author Daniel Silva, it’s a must-read. If you’re not a fan, you should be.... Highly recommended.
Engrossing and riveting.
Allon—the legendary spy, assassin and future chief of Israeli intelligence—is an elegant man working in a brutal business….Few authors in the espionage genre handle violent imagery as gracefully as Silva does.
Silva delivers another involving spy novel as cat-and-mouse game.
Simply delicious. If you’re a fan of perennial No. 1 bestselling author Daniel Silva, it’s a must-read. If you’re not a fan, you should be.... Highly recommended.
Engrossing and riveting.
Silva delivers another involving spy novel as cat-and-mouse game.
Allon—the legendary spy, assassin and future chief of Israeli intelligence—is an elegant man working in a brutal business….Few authors in the espionage genre handle violent imagery as gracefully as Silva does.
It is a world like no other told by an author like no other. If you are not yet a Silva/Allon fan then you are missing out on one of the best series in modern literature.
Daniel Silva is at the top of his game in this high-tension wire of an audiobook, performed by George Guidall. Silva’s Israeli spymaster, Gabriel Allon, teams with a former English commando named Keller to find Eamon Quinn, a former IRA bomb maker. Not only is Quinn a vicious terrorist for hire, but Allon and Keller also have intensely personal reasons for wanting him stopped. Guidall’s warm, lived-in voice brings so much to the experience, somehow always conveying understanding of and sympathy for the human dimension in the most terrible scenes of mayhem, the most morally ambiguous situations. His attention and pace never falter, and he is wonderful at the accents, including several flavors of Irish, along with Russian, Iranian, and an uncanny Israeli. B.G. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award, 2016 Audies Winner © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine
