A Long Night in Paris

When an Israeli IT specialist is abducted at Charles de Gaulle airport, this is not given too much attention at first. But since it can serve as a great story to redirect public interest from the latest of the Prime Minister’s misconducts, suddenly this incident turns into the top issue. And as it turns out, the case of the abducted Israeli becomes one of the most complicated and deadly warfares on French ground. While the newly appointed head of the Israel Special Section 8200 Abadi is fighting Chinese killers with a clear and uncompromising mission in the French capital, his deputy Oriana Talmor is struggling in Tel Aviv with their own people who appear to be much more interested in their personal agendas than in the country’s show more security. A long day and an even longer night lies in front of this seemingly mismatched pair.

Dov Alfon certainly knows what he is writing about and there are some interesting parallels between his own life and his protagonist Abadi. Both grew up in France which their parents left when they were still school boys. He did his military service in the IDF’s technological intelligence unit before becoming an awarded journalist. To sum up, “A Long Night in Paris” is a fast-paced spy novel which is highly complex in its plot and gives a lot of insight in what is going on behind the closed doors of one of the world’s most famous and most secretive services.

The story is simply addictive. Once you’ve started you can’t put the book down since you’re hooked and you want to know how all the different dots connect. What I liked most about it was the fact that it is not by surprising coincidences that the plot advances but by the doing of very intelligent characters. They are not only well-trained soldiers, but also the elite which is demonstrated breath-takingly. Even under the highest pressure, they keep calm and can control the situation.

Oriana Talmor is certainly a very interesting character. It is rare to have a female protagonist in a spy novel (who is not just the seductive sidekick of the big enemy), and in my impression she is well-balanced between the intelligent soldier and the human being who is sensitive and to whom also self-doubts aren’t unknown. This was especially shown in the scene where she motivates her female duty sergeant Rachel to continue her career as an officer.

The 2017 book sensation from Israel luckily now also available in other languages and without a doubt a novel that can compete with John Le Carré’s or Daniel Silva’s novels. show less

A very cinematic book, a fast paced action movie with a lot of drama. Lots of acronyms and other Israeli jargon but if you can get over that you’d better hang on to your seat because it’s good. I liked how the characters were drawn and how they fitted with each other. Lots of high tech bullshit like all these books and movies but nothing to detract from the narrative. It is the narrative that holds you from the get go. It is tight and works.

The story is the same old world in danger stuff but don’t let that put you off, if tooth like them then you already know that it’s not just the content that makes these books. It is the skill of the writer.

It is very Israeli and I wonder if it does the same thing for Israelis as reading John show more Le Carré does for the English?

Either way, if you want a good read, here’s one for sure. show less

At times unbelievable novel by former Israeli spy Alfon, who served with the unit the title refers to. The mysterious disappearance of IT-specilaist Yaniv Meidan at Charles de Gaulle airport not only sets Unit 8200 but several other Israeli intelligence services (Tzahal, Aman, Mossad, Shabak) are all responding according to their own agenda. Alfon writes in pleasantly short chapters. Many of the developments are hardly believable. Read it to know how to oblige a taxiing 757 to turn back. John McLane can learn something here.
Nevertheless, I'll probably be reading the next Dov Alfon.

Lots of action is packed into Dov Alfon’s debut novel, Israel’s bestselling book of 2016-2017, now available in English. It’s hard to believe so much can happen in little more than twenty-four hours!
The story begins one morning when a gregarious Israeli software engineer disappears from the arrivals hall of Charles de Gaulle Airport. An irrepressible flirt, he peels off from a group of colleagues to link up with a beautiful blonde before the two seemingly disappear into thin air.
Police Commissaire Jules Léger grudgingly organizes an investigation, predictably hampered by too many cooks: airport security, the Israeli police representative for Europe, a mysterious Israeli security colonel named Zeev Abadi, and, most uncooperative show more of all, El Al security.
Abadi is a Tunisian Jew raised in the Paris suburbs. Not until midnight does he assume his official role as the new head of Israeli intelligence’s SIGINT unit. Temporarily in charge of the unit back in Tel Aviv, with minuscule bureaucratic power, is Lieutenant Oriana Talmor.
At the airport, Abadi uncovers footage showing the hapless Israeli attacked by a pair of Chinese thugs and thrown into a sewer pit where survival is impossible. Abadi soon realizes the attack was a case of mistaken identity. He must figure out who was the actual intended victim and calls on Talmor her team back in Israel for help. Separated by more than two thousand miles, the two try to uncover the identity of the intended victim, his current location, and the reasons he’s a murder target.
Although most of the short chapters are written from the point of view of Abadi, Talmor, or Léger, some are from clueless higher-ups in the Israeli and French governments, the various criminal operatives involved, and the real quarry of the killers, a young man named Vladislav Yerminski. What you mostly learn about him is that he’s checked into an expensive hotel with a suitcase full of electronic gadgetry. (I forget how that bag got through Tel Aviv’s airport security, if I ever knew.)
It’s a multinational cast of characters and you’re well along before you realize what game Yerminski is playing and who’s behind the mysterious gang of Chinese pursuing him. All the bureaucrats are busy trying to spin the first victim’s undignified death in a way that masks the shortcomings and errors in their own intelligence work. Even though I couldn’t quite believe in the criminal mastermind whose Chinese assassins murdered the wrong man, I totally believed that they work in a rogue system that does not tolerate error.
Alfon came to the writing of this book with the perfect resume. He knows Paris, having been born and raised there. He is himself a former intelligence officer in the Israeli Intelligence Corps’ Unit 8200, which is responsible for signals intelligence (SIGINT) and code decryption. His political acumen was honed as a former cultural observer and editor in chief of Israel’s major newspaper, Ha’aretz, and he served as an editor for Israel’s largest publishing house. The translation flows smoothly as well. show less

Nope, I’m afraid I just didn’t get this at all. I can totally understand why it was such a success in Alfon’s native Israel, and the book is not averse in showing some of the less admirable sides of the Israeli intelligence and defence services. There is certainly authenticity, and clearly it is the work of someone who has come from that background – and therein lies the problem for me, I think. The book wears its ‘reality’ on its sleeve: there are far too many characters in the book and I just lost any sense of selfhood with some of them, being nothing more than caricatures; there were far too many examples of acronyms, ranks and long-winded explanations and discussions. The whole concept of the book attracted me, but show more although the book moves through many Paris landmarks there was nothing like a sense of location or excitement or chase or momentum, because the ‘action’ would then switch to extended dialogues between characters that just, well, bored me.

I was also struck by the whole absurdity of the plot, especially given the background of the author and his knowledge of the Israeli intelligence services. I just couldn’t buy into the Chinese gangsters, the body count piling up, and the Israeli/French search for the culprits. But then maybe it’s just me – maybe this is reality and Alfon is right. But I just couldn’t quite believe it, and when we got the ‘romantic’ ending and the clear suggestion that there will be more books in a series featuring the main characters…honestly, I just let out a sigh of frustration.

I’m aware that this is all quite negative, and I apologise. For an undemanding conspiracy/international thriller, then this is fine. But comparisons to John le Carre made by reviewers are, for me, badly misplaced. This reads like a TV or film script at times – and the constant references to the day/time brought to mind the clock ticking in the series ‘24’. I’m sure the rights have already been snapped up by someone to film it, and good luck to Alfon for the future. Others will love this, but I did not I’m afraid. I think I'm not the target audience for this, so read it and make up your own mind!

(With thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC in return for an honest and unbiased review.) show less

An Israeli tech specialist goes missing in Charles de Gaulle airport immediately after getting off a flight. Surveillance footage shows him following a blonde woman in a red dress and then disappearing. On investigation it would appear there isn't much to the incident as the missing man has no links to Israeli military or intelligence. The information is passed to Israeli intelligence officer Lieutenant Oriana Talmor who decides to look a bit deeper.

While reading this book I jumped between loving it and feeling a bit flat about it. The plot is superb and the writing is engaging most of the time but it needed to lose about 50-60 pages in my opinion. There are a myriad of interconnecting lines which pull the main characters in various show more directions at the same time. However, there is a section about 3/4 of the way through the book which goes nowhere to move the plot along. There are also far too many peripheral characters who only serve to confuse matters. show less

A fun vacation page-turner, which draws you in quickly and moves fast. A mix of realism and “cinematic in the negative sense” Ludlum-esquenaction. For a beach or a plane, perfect.