The English Girl by Daniel Silva

I have been a long and devoted fan of Daniel Silva, so it’s not surprising that I find his latest work, The English Girl, to be another example of the best in the genre of the international spy thriller. Really, that should be enough of an endorsement to get anyone to read this next book in the series about protagonist Gabriel Allon, the Israeli assassin, and the usual cast of characters which includes his wife Chiari, Ari Shamron, Uzi Navot, et al. Silva reintroduced a character from his former books, Christopher Keller, an assassin who once was assigned to kill Allon.

In this story, a young and beautiful English girl, Madeline Hart, was kidnapped while on vacation in Corsica. It turns out, she had been having an affair with the current Prime Minister of England, Jonathan Lancaster. About the same time, despite tough opposition, Lancaster’s government approved the Russian energy company to have drilling rights in the North Sea. I won’t reveal more of the plot, but it does bring the current Russian government into the story. Although Silva does not mention Putin by name, his hostile references to Putin are crystal clear. He wrote, “The current president of Russia was a man with no ideology or belief system other than the exercise of naked power.” Silva then uses a Russian character, Victor Orlov, the former owner of Russia’s largest oil company who was driven out of Russia by Putin’s power grab, to say, “He is a fascist in everything but name.”

I thought the only weak part of the plot was the use of Mikhail Abramov, an Israeli spy, who had to be quickly be educated in world energy economics and then be too rapidly accepted and recruited by the KGB (actually currently known as the SVR, but Silva points out that everyone in Russia still refers to that agency by its former designation). Even for those of us who are adept at suspending reality in order to follow a story, that part was a little bit of a stretch. Still, that does not significantly detract from the flow of the book. And, Silva uses this story to successfully set up Allon’s future role in his organization. I expect new great stories to flow from Silva.

My enjoyment of this book was heightened by the fact that I downloaded the book on my Kindle while traveling in Russia where much of the book takes place. I had a meal at the Pushkin Café in Moscow and stayed at the Ritz Carlton near Red Square, all of which played prominently in this novel. Currently, I’m writing this critique in St. Petersburg where more of the novel takes place. As he does in his other novels, Silva writes a great travelogue that only enhances a reader’s experience. This is a cannot-miss book which I could not put down, and as always, Silva gets my highest possible recommendation. Now, once again, I have to wait for another year for the next novel in this series. I only wish Silva would publish more often.