Daniel Silva is
the best author in the genre of international espionage. The Black Widow is the 16th in his series with Gabriel
Allon as the protagonist. If you’ve not read Silva, then don’t start here
(although this could be a stand-alone novel) or you’ll cheat yourself out of
the joy of the development of multiple characters who flesh out Allon’s
adventures. Start with the first novel in this series, The Kill Artist. All of Silva’s books are reviewed in this blog.
I thought the 15th
book, The English Spy, was perhaps
the weakest story in the series, but Silva has come roaring back with this one.
It’s a pivotal book since he has now introduced a new compelling character, Dr.
Natalie Mizrahi, a Jewish physician working in France, a.k.a. Leila Hadawi, a
covert ISIS warrior. The story was written before the latest terrorist bombings
in France and Belgium, which is precisely the main action of this story. Silva
nearly pulled this book from publication because of the terrorist events this
year which he had essentially predicted. In the course of his book, he manages
to explain aspects of ISIS and European immigration that you probably don’t know. The book is also
pivotal because Allon has his last direct adventure (apparently) and officially
takes over as the head of The Office, which is the secret intelligence service
for the State of Israel. And it is Mikhail Abramov, a character who has been
worked into the last half dozen of these books, who as the new assassin was
given the final assignment of this novel.
This novel is a
page-turner, so once you start it, be prepared to give up any other plans until
you’ve read the last page. The very good ride with Silva and Allon continues.
I thought this the best Daniel Silva novel I’ve read. Perhaps because it so relevant and current or perhaps because so much of the setting is on U.S. soil. I had the opportunity to hear Silva speak at our local library last month on his book promotional tour. Silva actually knows some Israeli spies and they read his books. He says they don’t feed him information but Silva had written about the ISIS attacks on Paris and Brussels for this novel before they occurred… creepy. Maybe he should be advising our government about terrorism.
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