Another excellent book in the Gabriel Allon series. If you want intelligent thrillers then there is no better than Daniel Silva! ( )

Interesting mystery, and for me a quick read. However, it's *very* realistic about our country, our world, and how terrorism will affect us all. Scary. People that have no consciences terrify me because there's no humanity in them.I liked it because it was hard to put down - the author kept you dangling and wanting to find out more.Nice 'in between' book... ( )

Gabriel Allon, art restorer and spy, is about to face the greatest challenge of his life. An al- Qaeda suspect is killed in London, and photographs are found on his computer. Photographs that lead Isreali intelligence to suspect that al- Qaeda is planning one of its most audacious attacks ever, aaimed straight at the heart of the Vatican.
Allon and his colleagues soon find themselves in a deadly duel of wits against one of the most dangerous men in the world and a hunt that will take them across Europe to the Caribbean and back. But for them, there may not be enough of anything: enough time, enough facts, enough luck.
All Allon can do is set his trap and hope that he is not the one caught in it. ( )

Wow, did I really get this *that* long ago?

As always, a quick read. Two and a half train days - 5 rides on the train and it's done. Interesting to read this one so soon after reading The Kill Artist, the first in the Gabriel Allon series.

The issues with the Vatican and the US Presidency are especially timely considering Shrub's visit to the Vatican in June which disrupted *my* visit. I love that Silva's Pope is so approachable, and I love Donati too. Very good characterization/ Pope Paul VII, Bishop of Rome, Pontifex Maximus, successor to St. Peter. It's interesting how Silva incorporates the current issues, such as Christian/Islam tension adn the Pope's concern that he's trying to build a bridge yet they're trying to kill him - maybe they don't want that bridge. I can't imagine the Vatican and St. Peter's destroyed. I just can't.

Shamron is eternal indeed. In many ways I see him similar to Lucchesi.

It's hard to be surprised when you know there's another Allon book out there. He's n ot going to kill off his lead. It's interesting to see how Gabriel and the others manage to survive, and I wonder if Nadia will play a role in Secret Servant. I was glad to see the return of Chiara.
I wish Silva wrote as quickly as I read. ( )

6th in the Gabriel Allon series.

Allon’s cover has been blown, and he is now working as an art restorer in Israel. But Ari Shamron, Israel’s ex-officio overseer of Israeli Intelligence, wants Gabriel to get back into the Service, as director of Special Ops. He shows Gabriel some interesting images taken off the laptop of a Palestinian agent: they are of the Vatican and Pope Paul VII, and are excellent indicators that both are targets for a massive terrorist attack. Monseignor Luigi Donati, the pope’s private secretary is at that moment on his way to Jerusalem to meet with Allon to discuss the seriousness of the situation and the steps to be taken.

Allon goes to Rome, where he participates in the heightened security arrangements and tries to determine how the attack will be carried out. During an outdoor audience in St. Peter’s Square, a terrorist attack occurs, which nearly kills the pope and succeeds in blowing a massive hole in the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica.

So begins the story.

I had a hard time with this book initially because in general I dislike books that have as a central part of the plot an event in modern times that never happened. I can take a different pope—not a problem—but blowing up St. Peter’s? It’s not that I think it an unlikely event; it’s just that it didn’t happen, and I don’t like stories that depend on such plot devices. It also seemed to me that Silva’s writing was not up to his usual standard.

But once Allon gets into the field, all of Silva’s strengths in plotting and writing such stories come to the fore. The story turned into a typical Silva gripping thriller, a page-turner, where you race through the book, tension at the max, to find out what happens next. Silva is at his best with the action-adventure parts; the characters are good enough to serve his plot purposes.

While I feel that this is not the best book in the series, it’s certainly no slouch, so long as you can overlook fictional events happening to famous landmarks that re crucial to the plot. I found it hard to swallow, but otherwise thought the book was excellent.

Highly recommended. ( )