This is the third Gabriel Allon novel I’ve read (there are presently 23 of them). It was probably the weakest of the three.
There’s always an organizational villain. In the othernovels, he demonized Israel and the Swiss banking industry. This time it’s the Catholic church – or a faction within it.
Allon investigates the death of a friend, and uncovers a plot from World War II where the Catholic church enabled the Nazis to continue The Holocaust.
Also like the other books: there’s a super-assassin running around with a catchy name: “the Leopard.” And all sorts of bouncing around Europe – the country count that the characters in Silva’s novels rack up is always impressive.
There are a lot of names in this one, and I was a little confused about who was who. And then there’s a twist in the end that I didn’t see coming…and didn’t understand. When the climax came, I was confused about who was taking action against whom. I still don’t quite understand the second half of the plot.
I’ll keep reading these, because Silva writes a fine thriller, but this one was a bit of a letdown.
These are the mountains between France and Spain. It’s neatly self-contained – running across the border, not quite reaching the Channel in the north or the Mediterranean in the south. The country of Andorra is on the border, right in the middle of the Pyrennes. (Which, I maintain, was the model...
This is an interpretation of Christian doctrine that believes the Christian faith should primarily be a tool to liberate oppressed people, and that sin is manifested in unjust social structures. The name comes from a 1971 book entitled A Theology of Liberation by Peruvian priest Gustavo Gutiérrez....
This is the southeastern coast of France, also called the French Rivera. The name translates to “Coast of Azure” or “Coast of Blue,” referring to the color of the Mediterranean. The French Riviera ends at the Italian border in the east, but where it starts in the west is up for debate. Some sources...
This is an excellent spy novel. Years ago, I listened to quite a few of Daniel Silva’s novels on CD in the car. I remember really enjoying them, and always wanting to get back to them. I looked up the Gabriel Allon series (his most successful series), and found the first title in it (this one)....
This is book two of the Gabriel Allon series, by Daniel Silva. This is another great spy novel – just as good as the first. This one concerns looted Jewish artwork, held in Switzerland. And just as I mentioned that Silva went hard on Israel in The Kill Artist , he goes twice as hard on the Swiss in...
