art theft

The English Assassin is the second thriller in the Gabriel Allon series. Allon is the former Israeli spy who is now living a quiet life in Cornwall where he occupies himself with restoring art, mainly old masters. When he receives an assignment from an anonymous Zürich banker to restore a Raphaël painting, he sets out to Switzerland. But once he arrives at the villa of this banker, he discovers the body of the man. Gabriel flees the site immediately but is arrested and interrogated by Gerhardt Peterson. He is accused of the murder of Augustus Rolfe but thanks to Ari Shamron, he is acquitted of this crime.

Of course, Shamron was the one that led Augustus Rolfe to Gabriel. Rolfe wanted to meet with an agent of the "Office" (the Israeli intelligence agency) but he never told anyone why or what for. So now Gabriel needs to find out why Rolfe wanted to meet with him. He contacts Augustus' daughter, violinist Anna Rolfe, who is estranged from her father after the suicide of her mother and the death of her brother. Thanks to Anna, Gabriel discovers that whoever killed her father has stolen an entire collection of paintings. Soon Gabriel is on the trail of an assassin, called The Englishman, a link between the murder and Hitler's plans to create a new museum, during World War II, with a collection of old masters, while modern art was exchanged in 'neutral' Switzerland and with a secretive elite group.

With the help of his friend Julian Isherwood, an ex-colleague from the 'Office' and Anna Rolfe, Gabriel is on the hunt for a collection of stolen paintings and for a killer, who knows no remorse!

“Switzerland is not a real country. It’s a business, and it’s run like a business.”Professor Jacobi

It's my plan to finish most of Silva's Gabriel Allon series this year by reading at least one book per month (if possible more). This series has been too long on my tbr (as are many others, of course) and it's about time I finish it.

Originally, it wasn't Silva's plan to expand the world of Allon and it would have been a one off. But somehow he must have liked the character more than he expected or people wanted more, I'm not sure. But by now there are 25 books in the series and the series has quite the fanbase. I'm one of those fans. I like the writing of these stories very much. Not only because of the many references to art, especially paintings (which I am a great admirer of) but also the way Silva created a character that has a sad history but somehow crawls out of the darkness and finds a way to find a new life for himself. The first two books are still a bit bleak for Allon, but you notice a change in his demeanor in this second novel already. He is more open, while at the same time still dealing with his past and the everlasting meddling by his former boss, Ari Shamron.

By taking the story towards the real theft of art during World War II gives the story a very sad turn. Still today a lot of those paintings are still somewhere hidden in safes or hanging in houses of offspring of Nazis. (last year a stolen painting was found in the house of a family that was selling their home in Argentina). A lot of these artworks were stolen from Jews, whose houses they raided when they arrested them and sent them to the camps. A sad bit of history that Silva used respectfully in this book.