The Messenger

I was worried that Sarah Bancroft would not make it. Having read a few Daniel Silva books, I expected her to be killed. Her rescue made a thrilling read, and you will find yourself totally engaged. The rescue itself pumped up the book from a 3-star to a 4-star read, which was threatening to be formulaic and plodding.

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 show more 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. show less

This was another good one by Daniel Silva. My only complaint is the improbable events. It has been too many decades since I read the Ludlum novels, but in the Bourne movies the scenarios are quite possible. Or like the genius of Stieg Larsson where no matter how twisted the characters and plotlines are they are not only possible they are highly probable; the truth is stranger than fiction sort of thing.

Here we have another Gabriel Allon, who is a wicked smart guy like Jason Bourne, but unlike Bourne his story can read like complete fiction. For instance, anyone can shoot missiles at the Vatican seven days a week, but it only happens in a Silva novel when the good guy is in the middle of the action. That way he can save the day, or not show more save the day, or sorta save the day by saving millions of lives all in one-one-millionth of a second. And those aren’t isolated incidents, they can happen repeatedly in a single book.

Yeah, that bothers me. Otherwise, the characters, both good and bad, are well developed and interesting. The general story is really good; the (mostly) well thought out terror attacks and the unorthodoxies Allon and his associates go through to track them down and stop them. Like the others, worth reading. show less

The book's theme is that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia supports international terrorists and while the plot is fictional, the documented truth of the matter is there for the reader. This novel is a very well written and well plotted thriller. For me, the best one of the series. The plot is intricate and winds around unpredictably...oh, so fun. The characters run around on a yacht the size of a Navy destroyer, but with more perqs--makes you wonder if that lifestyle could be fun, except for the security concerns. You want to root for the newly minted secret agent, an American art lover. What do do about those Saudi financiers?

Even though I do not read the series Gabriel Allon in a row, I really like this exciting spy series. This time Gabriel has to prevent an assassination attempt in the Vatican. At first there was some damage in St. Peter's Square and St. Peter's Basilica, but the Pope survived. Gabriel was convinced that this was not the actual goal of the terrorist attack. The journey of his investigations led to a rich Arab, who has a very dark group around him. An American spy was smuggled in and nearly died. The actual goal of the attacks was surprising.
It was exciting from the beginning.

The Messenger is the latest installment of Daniel Silva’s Gabriel Allon series, now six books long, about an art restorer who is also a counterterrorism agent and assassin for the State of Israel. I love this series, because its always about more than just danger and thrills like many espionage novels. Above all things, I think, these books are about the history of Jews and Israel. Books one, five and now six have been about the increasingly violent and seemingly eternal fighting between Israel, the Palestinians, and the Middle East. Books two through four were about, as Silva describes in the author’s note of A Death in Vienna, the “unfinished business of the Holocaust” (p. 397 in the hardback version).

So far, I am really show more enjoying The Messenger and am on tenterhooks about what’s going to happen next. However, I am also hearing a lot of the recent political discussion about Iraq and Israel coming out of the various characters’ mouths. This makes it hard to enjoy the book just for the sake of its plot and characters, but I also think this book does a great job of showing all this sides of these debates. No doubt some critics, professional and otherwise, will take issue with this, and say that Silva sacrificed a great book to get these agendas across.

I think he did, too, at least a little bit. But I think that these issues are so important for the world we live in now that we need to stay informed anyway we can. And fiction has always been a great vehicle for political commentary. (Jonathan Swift, anyone?)

I am also impressed at Swift’s ability to write about things that are so relevant now, when surely he must have had to finish this book many, many months ago. His last book, Prince of Fire, suffered a little when the world changed just after Silva wrote it. (I have a short review I wrote last year that talks about this in more detail.) It’s an unavoidable problem for books, that they often become out of date as soon as they’re published.

(This review originally appeared on my blog, the Textual Frigate) show less

A solid, straightforward, yet somewhat formulaic effort from Silva, as Gabriel Allon uses a female art enthusiast to infiltrate a terrorist organization to uncover a plot against the Pope, and ultimately the President. I think Allon's detachment from the female spy somewhat dulled the enthusiasm here, but still a gripping book from who I consider one of the better writers out there right now.