Prince of Fire, by Daniel Silva

Prince of Fire is Daniel Silva's fifth novel in his Gabriel Allon series. Allon is an internationally renowned art restorer, assassin, and Prince of Fire, by Daniel Silva master spy. This book follows A Death in Vienna, and is best read after it. Again, Daniel Silva offers a well-plotted, suspenseful spy thriller, full of tradecraft and with a story that is believable.

In Prince of Fire terrorists bomb the Israeli embassy in Rome and massacre the people working there. And so, once more, Gabriel Allon gets a visit from the spy master of the Israeli secret service, the legendary Ari Shamron. Ari Shamron, who once was the head of Israel's secret service and is Gabriel's mentor, is now special advisor to Israel's prime minister.

When Shamron visits Gabriel in Italy, he informs him that Palestinian terrorists have uncovered Gabriel's true identity and may be targeting him for assassination. He urges Gabriel to come out of retirement. Reluctantly, as always, he returns to Israel to head a team investigating the bombing. After some difficult work, the team finds traces leading to a Palestinian mastermind named Khaled al-Khalifa. He is, as well, believed to be the brain behind two earlier terrorist attacks. Allon is now assigned to find and execute him.

As in his other books, Silva weaves facts and fiction in a rough, hard reality which is grim and requires tough decisions, especially by those involved in the espionage business. The story in Prince of Fire is, if anything, even darker than most of the stories in this series. None of the actors involved – both individuals and the organizations – are able to walk away with clean hands in this story.

Khaled al-Khalifa turns out to be perhaps the most difficult opponent Gabriel Allon has encountered so far. Both have lots of resources to back them up, and both are extremely skilled and smart.

The complex and very well told story in Prince of Fire has a lot of twists and turns, as well as false identities, double-crosses and misleading information. And the action is fast and furious: assassinations, bombings and kidnappings.

Prince of Fire is a great addition to the Gabriel Allon series. It is an excellent, very exciting spy thriller.

More reviews of books by Daniel Silva: Daniel Silva page 1, Daniel Silva page 2!

Links to Daniel Silva's books at: Amazon US, amazon UK, Bokkilden.no, Haugen bok


The Secret Servant, by Daniel Silva

In this age of terrorism, and with no cold war to speak of anymore, the new breed of spy novels that has emerged is one that deals with the fight against terror. AndThe Secret Servant, by Daniel Silva this is the setting of Daniel Silva’s novels too. In The Secret Servant, Silva uses the now well-known art-restorer, spy, and assassin Gabriel Allon to assist, in a clandestine fashion, the United States in rescuing the president's god-daughter and the daughter of the American ambassador to the Court of St. James.

It starts, as some other missions has, as a routine job – Allon is asked by Ari Shamron, the Israeliold spy grand master, to retrieve some papers and documents left by an asset in Amsterdam. The asset was a Jewish professor who overlooked the Jihadist factions in the city. He had been killed, execution style, in front of a local cafe.

In Amsterdam, Allon is met on the street by an older Egyptian man, a member of the dead professor’s network, who claims to have information for him. That information leads Allon to London and to the Hyde Park, just seconds behind a group of terrorists that that kidnap the American Ambassador's daughter, Elizabeth Halton. Following this failure, Allon becomes embroiled in efforts to get her back. The case leads him all over Europe and into the heart of fanaticism, on a journey that looks so dark his chances of a return seem very bleak.

The Secret Servant is a tense, well written, very exciting novel. Daniel Silva is very knowledgeable about the Middle East. That serves him well in this book. Sometimes, however, I think he goes a little over the edge with his sympathies for Israel. While I may not disagree too much with him, I think perhaps his authorship would have been better served with a little more moderation.

Gabriel Allon continues to be a complex antihero, a very interesting and intriguing mix of a fierce, somewhat cynical, warrior and an emphatic, contemplative man. He is a man who does what he has to do. But he may not always like it. The story is very realistic. It is a book with great characters and an engaging story.

While you don't have to have read the earlier books in the series, knowing the history of the returning characters adds depth and color to the overall story.


The Messenger, by Daniel Silva

Silva excels at writing about spy tradecraft. However, he is also very good at describing characters and the complex relationships between them. In The Messenger these qualities are at the fore.The Messenger, by Daniel Silva This is a very realistic, extremely exciting book.

The Messenger opens in London where a professor of Middle Eastern studies is suspected of having Al-Qaeda ties. The Israeli Secret Service is on his tail when he is killed in an accident. The laptop he was carrying proves that not only was he a recruiter, but also indicates that he was involved in an intricate plot against the Vatican.

Gabon and the CIA decide they need to run an agent into the inner circle of Saudi billionaire Abdul Aziz al-Bakari who secretly finances terrorist acts. Al-Bakari is also known as "Zizi." Zizi is a well-known supporter of Ahmed bin Shafiq, the mastermind behind a number of bombings that have taken the lives of many of the Western "infidels" whom he despises.

In The Messenger, the focus is split between Allon and a new recruit - Sarah Bancroft, an American art expert - that he grooms to place inside the circle around the Saudi Arabian billionaire Zizi. Sarah Bancroft has been provided by Allon’s friends in CIA. She has a lot of necessary talents and qualifications, but she is inexperienced and has to learn the nuts and bolts of the spy trade quickly. Her task is to provide information that can make it possible to locate the terrorist master mind Ahmed bin Shafiq.

Gabriel promises that he will protect her after she has been inserted into the group around Zizi. That, however, turns out to be much easier said than done. Zizi moves around at a fast pace, and has lots of resouces. Gabriel and his team fail, despite their professionalism and all their precautions. And, as a result, Sarah faces torture and death.

The plot of The Messenger is fast-paced and exciting, and it's one of Silva's strongest efforts yet. It is a very entertaining spy novel from the talented Daniel Silva. And, as usual, Silva has done his homework. The narrative is filled with interesting details about art, spy craft, and the conflicts in and around the Middle East. It’s a well-written book that deserves the great reviews and the praise it has received. I liked it a lot.

The Defector, by Daniel Silva

The ninth book in Daniel Silva's excellent, intelligent The Defector, Daniel Silva and fast-paced series about the assassin and art restorer Gabriel Allon is perhaps the best so far. It is a tough book, full of violence and feels very realistic. Many of the great characters from the previous books are present here as well. The book most relevant for the action in The Defector is Moscow Rules, where readers were introduced to the evil and hard Ivan Kharkov, a former KGB agent who has become a Russian oligarch.

The tale is about vengeance, spy craft, finance, corruption and greed. When it starts, we find Gabriel in the tan hills of Umbria, where he restores a painting and honeymoons with his new wife, Chiara. There he receives shocking news from London. The defector and former Russian intelligence officer Grigori Bulganov, who twice saved Gabriel’s life, has vanished. The British believe he has re-defected. Gabriel is certain this is wrong. What is more – he owes Grigori his life and has made him a promise:

Do you know what we do with traitors, Gabriel? Many things have changed in Russia since the fall of Communism. But the punishment for betrayal remains the same. Promise me one thing, Gabriel. Promise me I won't end up in an unmarked grave.

He has no choice but to go to London and investigate the disappearance. There his suspicions are confirmed. And soon Gabriel and his team of operatives find themselves in a deadly conflict with one of the world's most ruthless men: Ivan Kharkov - a man with unlimited resources. A man who is protected by people in very high places in Russian society. The hunt for Grigori, and the fight against the wily oligarch seeking vengeance at all costs, take Gabriel and his men from a quiet mews in London, to the shores of Lake Como, to the glittering streets of Geneva and Zurich, and, finally, to a heart-stopping, extremely dramatic climax in the snowbound birch forests of Russia. Gabriel has never before been tested like this.

Daniel Silva’s spy stories are excellent. And The Defector is probably his finest novel – so far, that is. It is very suspenseful, of course, but there is also humor, love, warmth and elegant prose. This really is an excellently written novel. And this, together with the smart turns in the plot and the wide array of remarkable characters together make this an exceptional book. The Defector is an outstanding spy thriller.

PS: Daniel Silva's next book, The Rembrandt Affair (Gabriel Allon), is now ready for pre-order. It will be published in July, 2010.

Links to Daniel Silva's books at: Amazon US, amazon UK, Bokkilden.no, Haugen bok
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