House of Spies

House of Spies is Daniel Silva’s 20^th novel and the 17^th about his remarkable protagonist Gabriel Allon, an Israeli art restorer, and oh, yes, assassin. Since I’ve read them all, you know I’m a fan. There’s no one who writes better than Silva in the international espionage genre. At last, the aging Allon is supposed to have moved out of the field and into “The Office” as the chief of Israel’s secret intelligence service, thereby replacing the legendary Ari Shamron. But, when the crucial moments happen, can he really stay behind a desk? Maybe not. This is a revenge novel as Allon goes after the world’s most wanted terrorist who goes by the nom de guerre of Saladin. In prior books, Saladin had committed major acts of terror in Washington, as well as in London and many other places.

At the same time Allon keeps too close to the action, Silva further develops the characters of Christopher Keller, Mikhail Abramov, and Natalie Mizrahi. The story to locate the elusive Saladin follows the money from the ultra art dealer Jean-Luc Martel to Mohammad Bakkar, North Africa’s largest producer of hash.

If you’re a fan of Silva, you’ve already read his other books. While House of Spies could be a stand-alone novel, it’s my advice to start at the beginning with The Kill Artist, and work your way through the series. Really, after having been head-over-hills with this series, the last couple books did not keep me quite so spellbound. But, is it possible that this is the best one yet? Perhaps – it had me from the start, and I didn’t put it down until I finished it. Now, I have another year to wait for Silva’s next installment.