The Collector

Daniel Silva has been writing books featuring his charismatic protagonist Gabriel Allon for over two decades. Somehow the quality rarely falters.

The latest is no exception. It begins with an art heist but soon mutates into so much more, incorporating murder, Russia, and the Ukrainian war.

Allon may be older and semi-retired, but he remains a deadly foe. This time out he recruits an intriguing beautiful thief, capable of matching wits with the spymaster, to infiltrate Russian oligarchs to avert a global catastrophe. The result is another nail-biter in a long line of thrill rides.

Wow.

I have always really liked the Gabriel Allon series. I could be misremembering, but I want to say I was less thrilled when Gabriel became station chief. I want to say there was too much whining involved, about how he didn't want to be spy chief, wasn't qualified, it wasn't something he was good at, that sort of thing. So, anyway, I picked up Gabriel Allon #300 or whatever it is, and, wow, this was really good.

From the start. Word by word. Sentence by sentence. Paragraph by paragraph. I was immediately drawn into the story. Who knew retired Gabriel could be so good.

I will say that maybe about three-quarters of the way through I thought the story may have been stretching a bit thin. We had already gone through a good number of crazy show more scenarios. But it all it worked out okay. And Daniel Silva has you guessing until the very end. show less

The 23rd Gabriel Allon spy novel is finally here! I wasn't sure if this book would be able to maintain my interest given that last year the main character retired from his spy job for the State of Israel. Last year's entry for the series, Portrait of an Unknown Woman, was fantastic but our spy hero retired. How could the series survive? After reading The Collector I have a bad feeling about this.

The publisher's summary:
Legendary art restorer and spy Gabriel Allon joins forces with a brilliant and beautiful master-thief to track down the world’s most valuable missing painting but soon finds himself in a desperate race to prevent an unthinkable conflict between Russia and the West.
As you can tell from the above, the publisher didn't show more have much to say about the book. Silva's publisher summaries have always been 5+ paragraphs long. This should have been my first clue that the story was somewhat lacking. However, I missed the clue. I would have read the book anyway because I have enjoyed every book in the series.

In The Collector, Vermeer's painting "The Concert," painted in 1664, was cut from its frame in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in 1990 and stolen along with 12 other works. It could be the most valuable stolen object. There have been boasts about the whereabouts of the painting and leads over the years, and they've led nowhere. When a South African shipping tycoon murdered in Amalfi turns out to have a secret vault holding an empty frame that matches the dimensions of the purloined masterpiece, the Italian art police call Gabriel Allon for assistance.

The first half of the novel was a gripping art heist story. I thought it was a good place for the series to continue. Our protagonist, Gabriel Allon, was the consummate spy. He had a side interest in art and painting that he was tremendously talented in pursuing. He was able to create fakes of famous paintings from almost any artist.

The art heist story introduced a new series character. Ingrid Johansen is a brilliant computer hacker. She is an extraordinarily talented thief. She accepted a $10 million payment to steal the Vermeer from a palazzo in Amalfi, not realizing that there's a much broader conspiracy. Ingrid ends up working with Gabriel to find the painting that she stole.

This fantastic art heist story abruptly ends halfway into the novel. The international spy trade picks up the remainder of the story with no apparent connection to the first half with the exception that one of the bad actors in the heist is connected to the Russian government. I did not care for this part of the book. While the last two chapters try to connect the two, it didn't work for me. Silva has also incorporated the Ukraine-Russia War into the story along with a threat of nuclear war. It was not plausible given that half of this 400+ page book was solely an art theft story.

I am disappointed with The Collector. Since the first half of the novel was engaging, I am rating it 3 out of 5 stars. show less

This is a good one, with a stolen work of art leading supposedly retired spymaster (or maybe that should be master spy) Gabriel Allon back into espionage with very high stakes, facing the biggest villain in the current global landscape. It was nice to see the old band from the Office get back together, if only toward the end of the book. I don't know how much longer Silva can keep Allon in action (I made the mistake of calculating his age given that he was recruited to exact vengeance for the Munich Olympics murders). But I guess if in this universe his mentor Ari Shamron, who is credited with grabbing Adolf Eichman in 1960, is still kicking then I hope Allon has many productive years - and many more tales to recount - ahead.

Retirement doesn’t seem to be in Gabriel Allon’s future. While he and his family have moved to Venice, people looking for his services as an art restorer or locator keep finding him and making offers he can’t resist.

In THE COLLECTOR, he is asked to find a major piece of art, The Concert by Johannes Vermeer, which was one of the thirteen stolen from Boston’s Isabelle Stewart Gardner Museum in 1990. Another one of the stolen paintings, a Van Gogh (is it authentic or a forgery), was located in the home of a murder victim.

His investigation includes finding the trail from the museum to its present location. In the process, he must look for not only the thief but also who ordered originally, who the middle people were, and where it show more has been stored. He found the thief, a Danish computer hacker, professional thief, and environmentalist, Ingrid, who steals for fun and donates most of the money. She proves very helpful to him and I hope she becomes part of his team in future books.

The trail leads to an extremely wealthy, powerful Russian.

Silva also writes a lot about the current war Russia began with Ukrania.

And he visits his ex-wife, seriously injured by a bomb meant for him and suffering severe memory and communication problems. This time, however, there is some improvement.

There is a lot of international travel in the process and a lot of deaths, none of which are described in bloody detail.

As in all of Silva’s books, THE COLLECTOR is well-written and edited, moves quickly, and has interesting, believable characters in a lot of different locations. show less

Another good thriller from Daniel Silva with my favorite Israeli spy/art restorer Gabriel Allon. Retired and a happy family man in Venice now Gabriel gets sucked into finding a stolen painting by Vermeer The Concert. This supposedly quick job gets him in deeper into an espionage scenario that has Putin, Ukrain War and possible nuclear warfare taking his attention with Danish and US CIA involvement. I enjoy this series.

Silva’s newest thriller in his Gabriel Allon series has finally arrived and it will not disappoint! Now Allon joins forces with a brilliant and beautiful master thief to track down the world’s most valuable missing painting. Not surprisingly, he finds himself in a desperate race to prevent an unthinkable conflict between Russia and the West. One reviewer calls it “Silva’s best in years”. Get ready for all the action, fun, and great read!