The Confessor

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 other novels, 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.