Prince of Fire

How did I miss one of Silva’s Gabriel Allon series? What a great discovery for me. “Prince of Fire” is the fifth in this 12-book series (so far), and my only disappointment is that I have now read them all, some more than once. This plot is based on the life of Yasir Arafat and his family’s multigenerational attempt to exterminate the Jews, starting with the Palestine’s alignment with Hitler in the 1930s. While it is a novel, it is based heavily on real-life events. Time and again, Arafat had the chance to accept peace with Israel, but he chose war and then cried out that he was a victim. In this book, Arafat assumes care of a boy whose grandfather and father were killed in their war against the Jews, and he helps prepare the boy to carry out numerable terrorist acts throughout Europe. Finding out the terrorist’s true identity and tracking him down becomes Allon’s obsession. This book takes us back through some of Allon’s early history with his wife and son, and her partial recovery from the bomb blast that killed their son and left her permanently in a psychiatric facility. The story takes us through the beginning and temporary end to his relationship with Chiara. The other usual characters are there, especially the spy master Ari Shamron.

If you’ve read the blog before, you’ll know that Silva is my favorite author, the man who is at the top of my personal power rotation of authors. The plot and character development, as well as the artistry of his language, are as good in this book as in any of Silva’s other works. Can an author get six stars out of five? If so, Silva is the guy.