The Cellist

Yet another installment of Daniel Silva's Law & Order, ripped from the headlines, series following the illustrious Gabriel Allon as Israel's superhero. This time the focus is Russia. They've been poisoning emigres in London, stealing state assets and hiding them in the West, pushing opponents out of high-rise windows in thinly disguised suicides, pampering oligarchs and targeting misinformation to topple foreign regimes. Silva never mentions Putin or Trump but the descriptions leave no doubt as to who he is referring to. Their partner in crime is the dirty RhineBank but in the acknowledgements Silva names Deutsche Bank as the complicit partner in all the bad stuff. Since Jan 6th occurred before this book was to be published the final show more chapters were hastily rewritten to fit the latest headlines. Too juicy to ignore. And the Russian link was too easy to pass up on. Q had to be Russian.

And of course there's the damsel in distress who turns out to be both a brilliant beautiful, compliance officer at RhineBank who has turned away from a life where she could have been a concert cellist to the much more lucrative world of finance. But RhineBank is more interested in lucrative profits than listening to a woman telling them there's too much risk. She eventually tires of being overruled and decides to blindly sign off on all the deals she knows she shouldn't. Too talented to get rid of she earns the right to pick her assignment. She chooses to head for the center of the dirty dealing, the so-called Russian laundromat, the division of RhineBank where the money gets laundered. She kicks things off by giving incriminating copies to a journalist known for her anti-Russian writing. Things don't go well and she and the journalist become unwitting accomplices to a Russian assassination of a wealthy Russian émigré who had gotten Gabriel and his wife out of a Russian jail. Yes Gabriel's past always pops up in the latest adventure.

Speaking of the past, many of the usual suspects make cameo appearances, Ari, Chiara, Eli, Julian, etc. And the bevy of women who've fallen for Gabriel show up. This time Sarah Bancroft seems to kick off this story, selling art to the Russian émigré, only to fade into the background. And yes Gabriel's skills as an art restorer are employed. We even get to revisit his time spent with a concert pianist who of course has never forgiven him for abandoning her. But these are sub plots, The real story is financial. Lots of hidden assets, layers of shadow corporations, and the constant trade matching. Who knew? While I'm sure that's the way the game was played they make much less interesting reading than the usual blow things up events.

But Jan 6th was just too tempting to ignore. It fit in perfectly as a plot the Russians were behind. I won't spill the beans so the real plot twist will still come as a surprise. It's a very quick read, as usual. show less

Krasnov.

Daniel Silva sure knows how to write one hell of a story. The Cellist (2021) must have been knocked out in record time since it was topical and timely. I thought for certain that the whole Russian Oligarch / Billionaire Criminal thing as well as rich and powerful Russians falling out windows in tall buildings had been written to death. Nope, Silva surprises with maybe one of the best.

And I thought that maybe Gabriel Allon as Chief of The Office diminished these stories to a degree (compared to earlier works in the series). Nope, Gabriel is in the middle of everything in this book including the field response.

This was a good one.

How to be a spy while a pandemic is raging everywhere? Just ask Allon - it did not even slow him down.

Viktor Orlov, the Russian oligarch who saved Gabriel and Chiara's lives once, is killed in his own house. Even if anyone had any suspicion of who was responsible, the method itself makes sure that everyone knows - Kremlin finally extended its hand and silences its ex-child. That murder gets the Israelis involved; what Viktor had been doing in his last days gives them the weapon they need.

A woman working for the dirtiest bank in the world had been leaking documents to a journalist - and the journalist asked Viktor to look at them. As it turns out, this is the proof everyone had been looking for to prove who owns and operates the show more Russian money in the West. And Allon finds a way to make her into a spy.

Silva had used the plot before (including the discovered painting...) - so some parts of it sounded familiar. But there are also enough differences not to sound as a repetition. Add Anna Rolfe (still unhappy with Gabriel - and being helpful because the woman who leaked the secrets is a talented cellist), the Swiss and French police, Keller and Sarah Bankroft (now dating), the whole Israeli team (complete with Natalie now), a few Russian journalists we had met before, Ari Shamron and the Allon family and the book feels like a reunion - the series gets more and more tangled in this secondary characters to the point of being overcrowded in places.

Silva's world had always paralleled ours - except for the Vatican story, most of his world can almost fit in our world. This one takes it to an extreme - while the Russian president depiction had always been a very slightly veiled representation of the actual occupant of Kremlin, the US one had been a bit more removed. The last few books moved it a bit closer but this book pulls all the stops - there are no names (not for the presidents anyway - but Liz Cheney name IS there) but the 6th of January and QAnon and other details and comments are there and can as well be from a news article. Of course, there is the usual note about everything being fictional...

The later part of the book feels rushed - especially the Washington story. According to Silva's note, that was not supposed to be the end of the book - he rewrote a lot of it when the US Capitol get attacked. It ties into the story and it actually works but it feels too close to home to be comfortable.

Still a good entry in the series. I am curious where we are going from here though - Allon cannot keep getting shot for much longer... show less

Like many of his contemporaries, Silva has been writing his character-driven tales for decades. At this point, you know what you are getting when you pick up a book featuring his protagonist, Gabriel Allon. And to his credit, Silva seldom disappoints.

This latest entry was a little bit different though. After reading the author for several decades, I'd always found the Alllon adventures to have a right-leaning tint. In this one, Silva does a full swing to the left. Using the characters to comment on current events despite them taking place in a fictional setting.

The swing makes the story no less thralling, and casual readers probably won't notice. For the more dedicated reader, it'll take a little adjustment, but one worth making since show more once again Silva has produced a top-notch international thriller. show less

A poisoned Russian dissident, an investigative journalist on the run and a non-descript German banker. Linking these three is not easy for Gabriel Allon but he will most certainly not just watch when one of his friends who once saved his life is killed with Novichok. The traces soon lead to Isabel Brenner who works at RhineBank in Zurich, the world’s dirtiest bank. Apart from calculating risks and laundering money, she also plays the cello like a professional. Deceived by her misogynist co-workers, she starts to leak information about the “Russian Laundromat”, the bank’s way of cleaning Russian oligarchs’ rubles. It does not take long for her to be convinced to work with Gabriel Allon to bring the bank and the Russians to show more fall. Their main target is Arkady Akimov but he himself is actually only a small figure, it is somebody much bigger and much more influential who is behind the Russian money.

In the twenty-first novel of the series about the legendary Israeli spy and art restorer turned into director-general of the world famous intelligence service, Daniel Silva focusses on another current topic: the political influence which money can buy, especially money which was acquired illegally and washed through layers of fake firms by banks which are only too willing to profit. The author also managed to incorporate the Covid restrictions as well as the challenges to the American democracy that we have witnessed in January 2021 making it highly topical.

The cellist is a remarkable character, on the one hand, she is a highly intelligent cool mathematician who knows how to juggle with numbers and money. On the other hand, as a woman, she experiences the misogynist behaviour of her colleagues in a dominantly male business and despite her skills is prevented from unfolding her full potential. She finds solace in music, the cello she can play on her own and the impact the tone has on her own mood but also on others is amazing.

The Russians are an old but nevertheless still interesting topic in spy novels. It is not the cold war scenario of piling up destructive weapons anymore, the war between the systems is fought a lot more subtly today. Nerve agents like Novichok have become broad knowledge and the fact that money makes the world go round is also well-known. Having the financial means leads to the necessary power to rule the world, regardless of democratic systems and boundaries which only seem to exist on paper.

Silva proves again that he is a masterful storyteller. He brilliantly interweaves different plot lines to create a high paced and suspenseful novel. Still after so many instalments, one does not get exhausted by the protagonist since the author always finds a completely new story to tell. show less

Identify the potential atrocity, assemble the team, discover and turn a bright woman who has one foot on borderline illegal activities and the other on the desire to right the wrong, murder, politicizing, finger pointing, clandestine this and that and Voila - The Cellist. I admit to being riveted despite the formulaic format. Silva doesn’t hold back an inch or a second in castigating former President Trump, the horrors of the January 6, 2021 United States Capitol Attack as well as the malignity of Putin and his attempted control of the U.S. elections. Once again Silva has his finger on the pulse of politics and current affairs.

Viktor Orlov was one of the wealthiest men in the world. He made his fortune the usual way in Russia: unscrupulously. Using his mathematical genius and understanding of how the Russian system worked after the collapse of the Soviet Union, he began buying profitable state-owned oil and steel companies. His fortune, however, also brought on assassination attempts.
When Russia got a new president after Boris Yeltsin, Orlov did not want to cooperate with Vladimir Vladimirovich who wanted possession of those companies. Orlov refused until three Israeli intelligence agents being held captive in Russia were released. One of them was Gabriel Allon.
Orlov moved to England and began to rebuild his fortune. His first purchases were newspapers show more including an anti-government one in Russia. Not surprisingly, that made him an enemy of the president and lead to his fatal poisoning..
A woman, well-connected in the art field, was the last person seen leaving his apartment and became the prime suspect. Allon knew her and believed she had been set up.
Allon traveled to England and, working with members of the intelligence departments there and in other countries, was determined to find the real killer(s) and get revenge for Orlov’s death. Most important was his realization that Russia was working very hard to destroy the American democracy by undermining and controlling our Presidential election.
Rather than going in with guns blazing, he realized that since accumulating money to get power was a major weapon, he would have to follow the money to see where it lead. The most promising entry point was RhineBank, a fictional adaptation of Deutsche Bank, a giant organization that specialized in money laundering. Allon decided bringing down the bank would create enough chaos to destroy its backers who were heavily involved in financial affairs particularly of political figures, throughout the world, including in the US.
While THE CELLIST mentions previous jobs done by or for Allon, many new characters are introduced and play major roles.
The book takes place in the present time. The Covid-19 virus is spreading throughout the world and forcing people to change their plans and schedules to accomplish their goals. Having the use of private jets, more isolated locations, and limited numbers of people present at any one time helps.
The original end of the book was dropped after the insurrection at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. It works but doesn’t quite seem plausible.
THE CELLIST is somewhat more technical than Silva’s previous books but it basically plausible. Daniel Silva uses not only historical events but also warns of the dangers being faced by people and government trying to destroy democracies. It is well-written and kept my interest while explaining financial maneuvers. Because of one part of the climax, I would give this 4.5 stars if possible. show less