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Gabriel Allon has left a life of secret Israeli-intelligence missions and has decided to live a peaceful life in a rural Cornwall village where he dedicates his life to restoring paintings and priceless pieces of art. But his old life is about to come back knocking at his door when Ari Shamron, his old life's boss, pulls him back in to find the killer of two ambassadors in Paris. The killer is someone Gabriel has a grudge with as Tariq, the killer, is the same one that killed Allon's family in Vienna in 1991. Tariq is a Palestinian terrorist who has been hunted for a long time already.
Allon is teamed up with another agent, Jacqueline Delacroix (real name: Sarah Halévy), who hides behind a French fashion model's mask. She is set up as Allon's art dealer, Julian Isherwood's secretary, in London. She needs to try and seduce Yusef, one of Tariq's lieutenants and close to Tariq's organization. Thus starts a cat and mouse game between Allon and Tariq and a manhunt is on the way, approaching a revenge Allon has been wanting for nine years. But there's one thing they don't know yet, Tariq is terminally ill with cancer and has nothing to loose. He has plans for one final encore, a final act of terror! It's up to Allon and his team to stop him before he succeeds, without endangering themselves. Especially Jacqueline's cover could easily be compromised!
A few years back I already read the twenty-second novel in this series (Portrait of an unknown woman) and I felt I missed out on a lot of background (even though I could read it without). But my OCD mind can't handle reading a novel somewhere in the middle or even end of a series so I need to start from the beginning. In the meantime, there have been a few new novels in the series already and I found it was time to finally start reading this series from book 1, thus and hence why I have now started. (in February I will read book 2 and work my way steadily to the recent novels in the series).
I don't read spy novels very often but I do like reading them as I am a huge fan of intrigue and reading about people infiltrating organizations and try to stop them from inside, endangering their own lives and those around them. An extra plus for this series is the fact that Daniel Silva writes about art a lot (something I am a huge fan of myself).
But you have to admit that today this novel may also be a bit controversial or at least a hot topic. The battle between Palestine and Israel is one that has been going on for a very long time and these past hundred years and especially these past three years, there's a lot of disgust to how it's currently been handled (genocide!). So when I was reading this book I kind of wondered whether Silva would be biased or not. And somehow he wasn't because he did offer a look at both sides of the story (even though it's clear this is written from the perspective of the Israelian side).
All this aside this was a very great thriller and I am curious about the course Gabriel Allon will lead to in the future installments of this series.
Allon is teamed up with another agent, Jacqueline Delacroix (real name: Sarah Halévy), who hides behind a French fashion model's mask. She is set up as Allon's art dealer, Julian Isherwood's secretary, in London. She needs to try and seduce Yusef, one of Tariq's lieutenants and close to Tariq's organization. Thus starts a cat and mouse game between Allon and Tariq and a manhunt is on the way, approaching a revenge Allon has been wanting for nine years. But there's one thing they don't know yet, Tariq is terminally ill with cancer and has nothing to loose. He has plans for one final encore, a final act of terror! It's up to Allon and his team to stop him before he succeeds, without endangering themselves. Especially Jacqueline's cover could easily be compromised!
A few years back I already read the twenty-second novel in this series (Portrait of an unknown woman) and I felt I missed out on a lot of background (even though I could read it without). But my OCD mind can't handle reading a novel somewhere in the middle or even end of a series so I need to start from the beginning. In the meantime, there have been a few new novels in the series already and I found it was time to finally start reading this series from book 1, thus and hence why I have now started. (in February I will read book 2 and work my way steadily to the recent novels in the series).
I don't read spy novels very often but I do like reading them as I am a huge fan of intrigue and reading about people infiltrating organizations and try to stop them from inside, endangering their own lives and those around them. An extra plus for this series is the fact that Daniel Silva writes about art a lot (something I am a huge fan of myself).
But you have to admit that today this novel may also be a bit controversial or at least a hot topic. The battle between Palestine and Israel is one that has been going on for a very long time and these past hundred years and especially these past three years, there's a lot of disgust to how it's currently been handled (genocide!). So when I was reading this book I kind of wondered whether Silva would be biased or not. And somehow he wasn't because he did offer a look at both sides of the story (even though it's clear this is written from the perspective of the Israelian side).
All this aside this was a very great thriller and I am curious about the course Gabriel Allon will lead to in the future installments of this series.
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