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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. I made the mistake of reading this novel immediately after finishing Martin Cruz Smith’s Gorky Park for the second time. The contrast is stark. While Cruz Smith requires the reader to concentrate on every word in order to keep up with the twists and turns, Silva explains everything about his characters, their history and their motivations. His characters are almost caricatures of hard-bitten spies, evil gangsters and their beautiful women. While Gorky Park’s Arkady Renko is complex and thoroughly human and believable, Gabriel Allon, the Israeli Secret Service hero of Silva’s thriller is a comic-book hero. That said, Silva’s book is nevertheless an exciting thriller, set in Moscow, France and Italy, even if it rather improbably provides a disillusioned Russian KSB Colonel at the last minute to retrieve Allon from what appears to be a hopeless situation. Silva has done a good deal of research and he leaves us in no doubt of his concern at the rise of the Russian Mafia and its involvement in arms trading and support of terrorists. (  ) dwate | Nov 3, 2009 |  I really disliked this book. Unlike most of Silva's books, it was poorly researched and the writing was well below his usual standard. This, and it's follow-on, Deception, were probably written as one longer book and then split into two for promotional purposes. The author's diatribe against Russia, and promotion of Israel was simplisitic and annoying. The storyline was predictable and trite. I had trouble finishing this book. (  ) TigsW | Sep 28, 2009 | Audiobook. Daniel Silva is fun. Thriller. Nothing yucky. Better than most. That really is a recommendation. ( ) idiotgirl | Sep 15, 2009 | A spy novel that follows the Israeli Gabriel Allon. I believe Allon is character series for Silva. This is a good, fast-paced novel with some exciting passages. As far as I can tell, Allon is in his mid 50's but he seems to run around like someone at least 20 years younger. There are numerous mentions of past occurrences. It makes me want to find some of the stories of when he was younger. (  ) lanes_3 | Aug 23, 2009 | Gabriel Allon faces the threat of castrophy if he fails to derail an arms deal between a Russian arms dealer and middle east terrorists, Moscow is no longer the grim and gray city it once was and the excesses of power and wealth are evident. Ivan Kharkov, who built an empire after the fall of the Soviet Union, gained his wealth and power through illegal arms dealing. Gabrieal Allon an Israeli foreign intelligence agent and sometime art restorer is call from his honeymoon to stop him. (  ) lindahallmann | Aug 3, 2009 | 
 In the hands of a less skilled author, Gabriel's unexpected detours would simply provide page-turning dramatic tension, a fine addition to any spy novel. But under Silva, one of fiction's best espionage authors, those actions are more than just a simple plot device.  Daniel Silva’s espionage thrillers have plenty of high-concept plot twists such as terrorists, bombings, national security and the world in chaos. But one of the real reasons that Silva’s novels have found a resonance with readers – and a secure place on best-sellers lists – is the author’s ability to put a human face on these big-picture themes. Silva employs realpolitik in his this novel, bringing his insight into Russia’s current state as an underlying theme to the thrills of his plot, which includes swaying the wife of a Russian super-thug to turn on him. It is this aura of real-world menace that gives “Moscow Rules” its true flavor of suspense; that and Silva’s taut, page-turning style and quick ability to create solid characters with few words. OK, it sounds like your run-of-the-mill thriller. But Silva packs his pages with detailed tradecraft — and with local color that lives and breathes of such settings as the French Riviera, London, Paris and (of course, given the title) Moscow. Then there's the character of Allon, an interesting man who has stayed interesting through a whole string of thrillers...Put "Moscow Rules" atop your summer beach book list. Silva’s protagonist is the colorful, intriguing center of this spy series. A reluctant hero who has already lost his first wife and child to save the world once, he fears he could be risking his art, his life–everything, all over again. Expertly written and plotted, with lots of suspense and a charming hero, this mystery entertains.
Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0399155015, Hardcover)The extraordinary new Gabriel Allon novel from the “gold standard” (The Dallas Morning News) of thriller writers.Over the course of ten previous novels, Daniel Silva has established himself as one of the world’s finest writers of international intrigue and espionage— “a worthy successor to such legends as Frederick Forsyth and John le Carré” (Chicago Sun-Times)—and Gabriel Allon as “one of the most intriguing heroes of any thriller series” (The Philadelphia Inquirer). Now the death of a journalist leads Allon to Russia, where he finds that, in terms of spycraft, even he has something to learn. He’s playing by Moscow rules now. This is not the grim, gray Moscow of Soviet times but a new Moscow, awash in oil wealth and choked with bulletproof Bentleys. A Moscow where power resides once more behind the walls of the Kremlin and where critics of the ruling class are ruthlessly silenced. A Moscow where a new generation of Stalinists is plotting to reclaim an empire lost and to challenge the global dominance of its old enemy, the United States. One such man is Ivan Kharkov, a former KGB colonel who built a global investment empire on the rubble of the Soviet Union. Hidden within that empire, however, is a more lucrative and deadly business: Kharkov is an arms dealer—and he is about to deliver Russia’s most sophisticated weapons to al- Qaeda. Unless Allon can learn the time and place of the delivery, the world will see the deadliest terror attacks since 9/11—and the clock is ticking fast. Filled with rich prose and breathtaking turns of plot, Moscow Rules is at once superior entertainment and a searing cautionary tale about the new threats rising to the East—and Silva’s finest novel yet. (retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:18 -0400) The first test round has been closed. Visit the Open Shelves Classification group for details. |
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