Moscow Rules

I enjoyed this book a lot, which is normal for me and the Gabriel Allon series. I think that I may be getting tired of the series, though. It's somewhat of a similar formula for each one, where everything goes along well, then something goes wrong, Gabriel gets beat up or almost dies, but you always know he won't because there's more to the series.

Still, I enjoy the humor and excitement, so I'll keep reading them.

Gabriel Allon, art restorer and Israeli intelligence officer, has just gotten married to Chiara and is on his honeymoon in Italy. He's busy restoring a painting under an alias, when his employers call, asking for a favor. It seems a Russian journalist, Aleksandr Lubin, wants to tell Gabriel why one of his fellow journalists has been killed. Before Lubin is able to pass on his important information he is murdered just feet away from Gabriel by what is obviously a skilled assassin.

Lubin was on a mission to expose Ivan Kharkov, the son of a senior KGB officer and all around bad guy. When the Soviet Union began to crumble, Kharkov amassed a fortune by arms dealing. He became one of the newly minted billionaires of the new Kremlin. His show more holdings included shipping and air freight with branches reaching across the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Lubin was investigating the rumor that Kharkov was amassing dangerous arms to sell to al-Qaeda in order that they could continue their assaults on the United States and their allies. His source was Elena Kharkov, Ivan's wife. Gabriel summons up an Israeli investigative team and he and his fellow agents must persuade Kharkov’s wife to betray her husband.

Gabriel Allon can sometimes be a little sensitive, and emotionally torn but just when he appears to be infallible, he and his team slip up a bit, allowing the reader to continue to enjoy the chase. I love espionage novels and I think Silva is a master at this genre. Moscow Rules is both a fast-past thriller with all the appropriate twists and turns and a fascinating look at the inner workings of Russian society today. show less

Gabriel Allon, art restorer and Israeli intelligence officer, has just gotten married to Chiara and is on his honeymoon in Italy. He's busy restoring a painting under an alias, when his employers call, asking for a favor. It seems a Russian journalist, Aleksandr Lubin, wants to tell Gabriel why one of his fellow journalists has been killed. Before Lubin is able to pass on his important information he is murdered just feet away from Gabriel by what is obviously a skilled assassin.

Lubin was on a mission to expose Ivan Kharkov, the son of a senior KGB officer and all around bad guy. When the Soviet Union began to crumble, Kharkov amassed a fortune by arms dealing. He became one of the newly minted billionaires of the new Kremlin. His show more holdings included shipping and air freight with branches reaching across the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Lubin was investigating the rumor that Kharkov was amassing dangerous arms to sell to al-Qaeda in order that they could continue their assaults on the United States and their allies. His source was Elena Kharkov, Ivan's wife. Gabriel summons up an Israeli investigative team and he and his fellow agents must persuade Kharkov 19s wife to betray her husband.

Gabriel Allon can sometimes be a little sensitive, and emotionally torn but just when he appears to be infallible, he and his team slip up a bit, allowing the reader to continue to enjoy the chase. I love espionage novels and I think Silva is a master at this genre. Moscow Rules is both a fast-past thriller with all the appropriate twists and turns and a fascinating look at the inner workings of Russian society today. show less

8th in the Gabriel Allon series.

Gabriel and Chiara are on their honeymoon in the Umbrian hills of Italy while Gabriel, under an assumed name, of course, restores a painting for the Vatican. However, any thought that Ari Shamron, the unofficial head of Israeli Intelligence, will allow Allon some peace is rudely shattered when Allon gets an assignment: meet with a Russian journalist now in Rome, find out what he wants--because the journalist will talk with no one but Allon about what he claims is a grave danger to Israel and the West.

A simple mission--just an overnighter to Rome, hear out the journalist, then back to the Villa dei Fiori to finish out his honeymoon.

Nothing in Allon’s world, however, ever works out that simply, and before show more long, Allon is on a headlong quest that takes him to the Cote d’Azur in France and then to Moscow.

In my opinion, no one writing today matches never mind bests Silva in the international spy thriller genre. His books are always well-written, well-plotted and incredibly exciting. That’s the case with Moscow Rules, which has a page-turner of a denouement that keeps you up at night until you’ve finished.

His recurring characters, such as Ari Shamron, Uzi Navot, Eli Lavon and, of course, Chiara, are solid, We meet again Adrian Carter of the CIA and Gergory Seymor of British Intelligence. His one-timers are good--believable-- even if some of them are somewhat one-dimensional. No matter--the action is what counts, and Silva is brilliant at it. Highly recommended. show less

A terrific addition to the Gabriel Allon series. Sometimes I find myself thinking that it's a privilege to be reading a writer at the top of his or her game; this was one of those times, and Silva is clearly one of those authors. And as someone who cut his thriller teeth on Iron Curtain stories, it's always nice to see Russian bad guys acting like Russian bad guys. :)

Well written, but similar structure to the previous books in the series. The real-life issue this time is the sale of weapons to dangerous governments and terrorist groups. A "respected commentator" does note that the deal that Gabriel Allon et al. are trying to stop would result in "a tiny fraction of those killed by [his] guns and bullets in Africa alone." (p. 414)

Gabriel is on his honeymoon, when a Russian journalist insists on meeting with him. Gabriel reluctantly accepts the invitation, but when the man is killed before the meeting, Gabriel is drawn into a mystery involving a very powerful weapons dealer with dangerous plans.

Gabriel's art plays a bigger role than in some of the stories, it has always felt it should be a bigger part of this stories, so this was refreshing.

This is a very well-told story with a lot of intensely interesting characters. The story has a good pace and will keep the reader involved.