Ransom

 

Ransom by Daniel Silva is his 26^th novel about Gabriel Allon, an Israeli spy and assassin who rose to being the director of an undercover department, but he has finally, allegedly, retired from such clandestine work. Allon spends his winters in his flat on the Grand Canal in Venice with his Venecian wife, Chiara, and his two children. In retirement, during the summer months, he retires to a remote cabin in Cornwall, England. He works as a restorer of old art masterpieces, the same skill he often used during his years as a spy to disguise his true identity.

This story starts out with four women, now in their 30s, who have been friends since their college days. One of them, Alice Winnter, married to Edward Knight, a man worth billions, and she typically pays for all expenses for their annual week-long reunions in only the most extravagant places. The current gathering is on the island of Ibiza. Alice is a dazzling socialite who has millions of followers on social medial. However, before the week is over, Alice gets in a major argument with one of her girlfriends, Phoebe. Alice then disappears, and her husband is desperate to find her. The story become one of kidnapping and an outrageous ransom demand, leading to Knight’s plea to Allon to find Alice.

The plot involves the discovery that Knight is only so wealthy because of his financial support by a Russian oligarch. However, there’s an important twist regarding the kidnapping, and Alice reveals she must divorce night because of his connection to the Russians who are currently at war with the Ukraine. When the ransom demand went unpaid, at first, it is assumed that Alice has been killed. The unwinding of the mystery of Alice’s disappearance is the meat of the story, including the undoing of her husband’s source of wealth.

I’ve often thought of myself as Silva’s best fan. He produces one new book a year which I usually read in a day or two, and then impatiently wait for another year before I get to enjoy the continuing saga of his protagonist. The life and adventures of Gabriel Allon have captivated me. However, this book was not up to Silva’s usual engaging stories. It’s not a simple task to follow any  hero through 26 books as he ages out of the very work that made him so interesting. The wonderful and rich descriptions of his travels was present, just as in all of his previous novels. However, as Allon gets into the tedious details of money laundering on behalf of Putin (never named in the body of the book), we’re taken through lengthy and boring details. The plot stalled until the very end of the novel. So, this particular novel was not one that I can recommend.

An Inside Job

 

 

An Inside Job by Daniel Silva is the 25^th book in  his series about Gabriel Allon. I’ve read them all and most of them at least twice, so you know I’m a fan. While I thought a couple of his recent novels were somewhat weaker than usual, this one was certainly not. He has set a high standard for  his work. Although when I consider which one of his books that I’ve liked the best, I can’t make a choice. An Inside Job just may be his best, although I’ve  written that before.

 

Five years retired from the clandestine Israeli force that he worked for, Gabriel Allon now works for his wife’s art restoration firm, and Allon is thought to be among the finest art restorers in the world, especially of the old masters. Allon now lives in Venice with his family, a wife and twins, a boy and girl. Although no longer a spy, he is a consultant with various police departments about various serious crimes. In this case, he learns a particularly valuable piece of art has been stolen out of the highly secure vaults in the Vatican. Prior books about Allon have established his long and deep friendship with the current Pope, so it is not surprised that Allon is consulted in this case. The matter gets much more complex as a young apprentice restorer has been found murdered, and the work she has done was on an undiscovered portrait by Leonardo da Vinci. The painting had long been buried beneath a painting by a lesser known artist. Beyond the importance of such a discovery by Leonardo was its current value, probably of half a billion dollars. Not only does the Vatican expect to recover the painting, the Pope needed to understand how such a theft could have occurred.

 

Who could afford to buy such an expensive painting? The pursuit of the painting involved multiple bidders and other interested parties including a Russian oligarch, the Camorra which was the most violent part of the Mafia, the financial dealings of the Papacy itself, and two financiers who worked to launder money for the Camorra. The Carabinieri, the Italian police were deeply involved in solving the case. Meanwhile, the Pope was trying to reform the church and root out the massive corruption that he knew existed. There were substantial forces against him who wanted the various corrupt schemes to continue, and the Pope’s life was in danger, along with the life of his buddy, Gabriel Allon. It was during his time as a young priest that the current pope had a torrid love affair, and since his appointment as the new pope, his former paramour reemerged.

 

That’s enough information. It remains my opinion that in this particular genre, that I’ve never encountered an author who writes with more skill than Silva. His character development and plot creation are superior. He produces his new books once a year, so I eagerly await the next one, then read it in a day or two, and then have to wait a whole year for another. An Inside Job was a book that was worth the wait.

PS I listened to the audiobook format in 12/25 for my second go at this book, and I liked it even more the second time through. Daniel Silva's talent knocks me out.

A Death in Cornwall

 

A Death in Cornwall is Daniel Silva’s 24^th book in the Gabriel Allon series. I’ve read them all, and I’ve read most of them more than once. Without question, I’m a fan of this series. Silva publishes one book a year, and each time, upon getting it, I read it in a day or two and them and forced to wait another 364 days to get the next one.

 

Now retired from the Israeli secret service, Allon is active with his art restoration talents, which in this case takes the reader into the world of art purchases and restorations of the most valuable paintings in the world, specifically a Picasso worth more than $100,000,000. This takes us into the world of art forgeries which are a rampant problem in the sale of such pieces of art. But of course this story involves deaths that must be solved, and curiously, a murder victim, Professor Charlotte Blake turned out to be a world-renown expert in the history fine art, and she is especially known for researching the provenance of such works.

 

As Silva was called in by a friend from the police force in Cornwall, it becomes clear that Professor Blakes murder which was initially thought to be due to a local serial murderer, was actually due to a consortium of the megawealthy who have been using the “London Laundromat” to wash the proceeds from worldwide drug sales, thereby concealing billions of dollars. That operation brought the story to corruption at the highest level of English lawmakers.

 

As usual for Silva, the plot line is perfect, and his characters are both compelling, easy to love and easy to hate. For devote readers of this series, Silva includes many of the characters he has developed over the course of these three books. I will rate this book as a 5+. These books are always standalone novels, but if you’ve never read about Allon, I advise you to start with the first one, The Kill Artist, and work your way through this impressive series.

1575. The Collector by Daniel Silva

The Collector is Daniel Silva’s 26^th book in the Gabriel Allon series. If you’ve been reading the blog, you know that I’m an unapologetic rabid fan for this author who is the master of the international espionage thriller genre. Yes, he’s done it again.

 

In this latest novel, Allon has retired as head of “the office.” He had begun working as an art restorer while living in Venice with his wife and two children. His art restoration company was owned and run by his wife, Chiari. (Did you know there’s a Hotel Chiari on the Grand Canal in Venice.) He was pulled into dazzling international intrigue as a result of the theft of a famous painting in a private estate in Almalfi, which he is asked to investigate.

 

He ends up encountering Anna Rolf, the world renowned pianist and his former lover. Interestingly, Silva used Rolf to highlight Chiari’s jealousy of her husband’s prior relationship with her. As always, Silva is a great travel writer and this story takes Allon to parts of Europe that he has not been in before. I need not give you more plot details except to write that Silva continues to be the master of this genre.

 

 

 

 

Above, I’ve added one of my own photos from my trip to Northern Italy in May 2023. The photo from a bridge in Venice is taken from the same spot as the cover photo for this book. My wife and I did stroll through the Jewish part of Venice which has been repeatedly described by Silva, and we stopped to chat with a group of friendly and accommodating yeshiva students. It is a wonderful place.

West Coast Don

#1522 The Kill Artist by Daniel Silva

 

The Kill Artist is Daniel Silva’s first novel in the Gabriel Allon series which now numbers 23 books. I’ve read them all, and without question, he is my favorite author in the thriller, killer, espionage genre. Allon is an art restorer which has given him the cover to travel around the world while doing assassinations on behalf of “The Office,” the name of a secret branch of the Israeli intelligence service. He has already performed many such jobs for The Office starting with the killings of all the survivors of the Palestinian group that slaughtered Israel’s athletic team at the 1976 Olympics in Munich. This book begins after Allon has suffered his own tragedy. In a spy v. spy event, his car was rigged with a bomb which killed his son and permanently damaged his wife both physically and mentally.

 

Allon has been on a long leave from The Office following the bombing incident, but his boss was Ari Sharon, a 65-year-old former spy who has retired from field work. He is a relentless character who is impossible to turn down. When Sharon insisted that Allon come back for one more assignment only he could do, and in the face of several recent failures by the Office staff, Gabriel agreed.

 

Regarding the spy v. spy, Silva contrasted Allon with Tariq, a master terrorist without a conscience. Allon was constantly torn up inside with his assignments, insisting on always doing the right thing, and Tariq who was a brilliant psychopath who was willing to do anything to reach his goal. Tariq was responsible for the bomb that kill Allon’s son and damaged his wife, and more recently, he had killed the Israeli ambassador in the Netherlands. He was bent on upending the recent Israeli and Palestinian peace talks. Tariq figured out that Allon was chasing him and Tariq turned the tables on Allon, they were hunting and chasing each other.

 

Silva brought all the subplots to a convincing conclusion. Please see my review from 9/2014. I chose to listen to this book on tape, and I plan to gather the audiobooks from Silva’s early writing. Such a pleasure, and the reader, George Guidall is a master, as well.

.

Portrait of an Unknown Woman by Daniel Silva

Daniel Silva has done it again There are 24 novels (if I counted correctly) in the Gabriel Allon series, all of which have been reviewed in this blog, all of which I’ve loved. The sad part of finishing the latest novel is that I have to wait another year until the next one is published. If you’ve not yet read Silva, then you have a big stack of books that will entertain you and hold your interest for a long time. Start with The Mark of The Assassin, written in 1998. The new story, Portrait of an Unknown  Woman, is a bit different because Allon has retired as the head of the Office, the master spy/assassination branch of Israeli intelligence. Over the years, we’ve seen him move from a super agent doing nearly impossible acts of espionage, and then reluctantly advancing into the administration. But in the current book, he has become a civilian again. 

 

Previously, for the Office, Allon used his artistic talents as a cover for his being in place to do his deeds for Israel, and in this book, he continues as an artist who entered the world of art forgery for the purpose of exposing a scheme to flood the world with fake masterpieces. Some fakes were already hanging in prestigious museums and were selling at outrages prices. For people who had purchased such paintings, they had a stake in the forgery scheme not being exposed or their alleged multi-million dollar paintings would have been exposed as worthless.

 

Silva brings the usual cast of characters although we read more about his family since they’ve moved from Jerusalem to Venice, the home of his wife, Chiari. Julian Isherwood and his gallery are central to Allon’s plans. Of course there are new characters who are introduced to fill out the plot and subplots. I don’t intend to write about the plot, so the book will just provide you with the intended surprises. As usual, Silva, my favorite writer, gets a 5/5 rating from me.

 

WCD

P.S. I read this book more than three years ago (now 11/9/25), and when I ran out of new audiobooks while out of the country and unable to download new ones, I listened to this one again. I may have liked it even more than the last time. Silva is a master.

The Cellist by Daniel Silva

I’m very late in reviewing Daniel Silva’s most recent book. He always publishes his new novels of July, and I have a history of reading the new book within a day of it’s publication and usually finishing it during a single day. Then, I have to wait a whole year for the next installment. What can I say, the late summer and fall months were busy with my own writing project, as well as some other books I had committed to read. Finally came vacation, which I inaugurated by re-reading Silva’s last book, a brilliant plot, The Order. 

 

The Cellist is the 21^st Gabriel Allon novel. This is a a story about the international money laundering effort by Putin who is stashing his money in real estate in the West, including the U.S. and London. I must say that I think I understand massive money laundering in a way I had not previously appreciated, all of which was fascilitated by Deutsche Bank for which Silva substituted the fictitious RhineBank, “the dirtiest bank in the world.”

 

As usual, the book contains a cast of characters, most of whom we’ve come to know over the course of these novels. It was great to once again read about Christopher Keller, who we haven’t seen in a few novels, but who seems destined to take over the spy actions for the aging Allon. In a prior book, we met one of the two cellists in this. Anna Rolfe was an internationally renown player whose career was negatively impacted by the pandemic, but given the temporary easing of the virus, she was used as a draw for a charity acution for a recently discovered painting which had secretly been restored by Allon. This was Rolfe’s first public performance after being in isolation for nearly two years. The other cellist was Isabel Brenner, a brilliant woman with numbers who had won a major prize as a junior cellist. Although she chose to pursue a career in finance, she had kept up her cello chops. When Ms. Rolfe heard her play, she was impressed and got this unknown cellist to close the show for her at the charity. Importantly, Brenner had worked for RhineBank before she gave away some damning records to a reporter and was fired for it. But, because of her skill at laundering money, as she had been doing for RhineBank, she was hired by Martin Landesmann, known by all as St. Martin because of his remarkable work for various human interest charities, and the environment. However, he used the good stuff as a coverup for his clandestine banking. He really was all about profit.

 

It was Brenner, through Landesmann, who was pulled into the scheme to launder more Russian money, but she was placed there by Allon who wanted to hurt a prior enemy, Arkady Akimov, Russia’s largest oiler dealer. Putin had allowed Arkday to become monstrously wealthy. Arkady donated $20 Milion Swiss Francs just to get a seat for Rolfe’s performance. Allon was after $11 Billion of money that Putin wanted converted into Western real estate..

 

There’s lots of action in this story which takes place mainly in Switzerland, but moves swifty to Moscow, London, and Washington. The author just happens to be a gifted travel writer. Silva clearly follows U.S. politics as he weaves his story about the last two presidential elections and the divisive activity that came from the campaigns.

 

You won’t be disappointed in this book by Silva. He lives up to his own impossible high standards.

 

WCD

The Order

The Order is the 23^rd book in Daniel Silva’s stories about Gabriel Allon, who started as an Israeli assassin who had killed six of the twelve Palestinian terrorists who murdered the Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics in Munich. Now, Allon has progressed to being the director in charge of The Office, headquarters for Israel’s secret intelligence and undercover operations. If you’ve been following the blog, you know that Silva is my favorite author in this genre. There are so many great authors that we’ve reviewed in the blog, but he’s the best. He publishes one new book a year, which I read in a couple days and then wait impatiently for the next installment.

Silva has surrounded Allon with a great cast of characters, from his wife Chiari and heir boy-girl twins to the various personnel in The Office which have been with him since the first novel. This book may have been the most impressive plot yet as he looks at anti-Semitism and the Catholic Church. In this book, he has created the Gospel of Pilate which presents a different story about the responsibility for the death of Christ as it was revealed in Matthew and Luke, a story that prior popes have hidden, much to the detriment of Jews. Silva’s knowledge of the inner workings of the Catholic Church is impressive, and importantly, the Pope he saved in an earlier novel, has now been murdered. A new Pope is about to be elected, and the sinister forces within the Roman Curia, the body that helps the Pope administer the Vatican, become quite active in their attempt to take control of the Pope’s election.

It’s a great story based on thorough research. I’ll write nothing further, except to encourage you to read this book. But damn, now I have a whole year to wait for Silva’s next book.

 A year after the above was written, I decided to re-read The Order prior to reading Silva's next novel, The Cellist. In the review of The Order, I commented that I thought the book contained the most impressive plot yet, and I remain of that opinion. Silva's research is remarkable, and in reading this book, you'll get a good history of the world-wide antisemitic movement, as well as a snapshot of the its current status.

The New Girl

When I get a new Daniel Silva novel, I start with such excitement, but in too short a time when the new adventure comes to an end, the excitement is replaced by sadness. Now I have to wait for the next novel. And so it was again with The New Girl, the 19^th novel in the series of Gabriel Allon stories. Although I was sure it was not possible that he could write a better story than he had before, I think Mr. Silva has achieved exactly that. This is a very current day fiction with international political figures that you will recognize. The accounts of the characterized are fictionalized, but given the research the author has done, it is all frighteningly believable. In this story, Russia’s meddling in other countries than the US is described, and their international assassinations that are well known in real life, comes to play again. England, Israel, Iran, Syria, and the U.S. have much at stake. Once again Sylva uses characters that are well known to his readers, and the story is enhanced with new ones. You don’t really need any more information to go buy this book and share in the continued evolution of Gabriel and his supporting characters. Thank you Daniel Silva, and now I await your next effort.

The Other Woman

-->

Following the blog’s new trial guideline, I’m keeping this review to a maximum of six sentences. 

If you’ve been following the blog, then you’ll know I’m a fan of Daniel Silva, and he’s done it again. Gabriel Allon, after serving as Israel’s most important intelligence officer and assassin, is now the head of the Office, the unofficial name of Israel’s international intelligence agency. He was in the process of bringing in his most important asset from the Kremlin when the man was brutally murdered in Vienna, the site of so many of Allon’s prior traumas. That murder led Allon to begin the hunt for the mole that had to be inside British intelligence. As usual, the plot involved all the usual characters that have been developed over the course of the 18 Allon novels. The plot is excellent and contemporary, and if you like espionage stories, this book will keep you engaged until the last page.

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.