The Rembrandt Affair by David Silva

While West Coast Don and I may sit somewhat opposite of each other on the political spectrum (he lives on the left coast and I'm on the east coast, so draw your own conclusion), I will no longer doubt his enthusiasm for an author. Just finished The Rembrandt Affair by Daniel Silva and it was terrific.

An art restorer, a former classmate of Gabriel Allon, is working on a previously unknown Rembrandt when he is murdered and the only painting stolen is the Rembrandt. The art dealer who contracted the restoration contacts Gabriel to see if he might try to find and recover it. The first item of business is to establish the chain of ownership which takes Gabriel to Amsterdam and the home of a spinster teacher who has lived her life alone because of the guilt she carries from the war. A Nazi charged with raiding art from the Dutch snagged this Portrait of a Young Woman from the family in a deal. Hand over the portrait and the daughter lives, but the rest of the family is off for the camps.

This Nazi sleaze ball amasses quite a array of riches and deposits it in a Swiss bank and high tails it for Argentina (sending Gabriel to SAmerica to visit the son). The son, however, has no interest in his father's ill gotten gains and has worked hard to distance himself from his family legacy. But Gabriel also learns that the son of the Swiss banker is Saint Martin, a Swiss billionaire whose fortune was built on Jewish war booty and now puts up a front as a benefactor for numerous social causes while quietly selling machine parts for uranium enrichment to the Iranians. Greed should be his middle name. The thin ice of Martin's empire is a list of names and account numbers of Jewish victims in Holland that have been sealed in the painting.

Gabriel does his due diligence learning of Martin's affair with a British journalist named Zoe, turns her to his side and she manages to tap Martin's phone and computer. But the info is just a taste. They need the main computer in Martin's home. Zoe and one of Gabriel's team attend a big to do at Martin's home and bug his computer, but get caught.

From here, Gabriel exercises his negotiating skills (while being outnumbered 4-1 at one point) and tightens a noose around Martin's neck to do the right thing by helping save Israel, on whose backs his fortune was built, by sending sabotaged Iranian machine parts.

This book followed the Deaver book I just posted and while I struggled to keep my attention on that story, this book grabbed me at the outset and really was one of those can't put it down books. Plenty of twists and plot turns to keep one thinking, 'Now what'? First rate story telling.

While WCDon suggested starting at the beginning of Silva's work to see the development of the Allon character, I grabbed the first one I could find in the library, skipping maybe 30 years of Allon's life. No matter, I'll have no problem heading back again.

Thus . . . In West Coast Don We Trust.

East Coast Don