Rating: 
Summary: Waiter, did you tip the honey?
Review: Daniel Silva's story is set amid the Palestinian-Israeli conflict where patriots on both sides become zealots driven by the unspeakable inhumanities they suffered. Gabriel Allon, a crack Israeli agent and world class art restorer, comes out of retirement to nail Tariq, the Palestinian terrorist who killed Gabriel's wife and son years before. Ari Shamron, his cold Machiavellian mentor who is running the super secret operation, offers up Jacqueline de la Quoi, born Sarah Halevy and granddaughter of Jews executed in the Holocaust.Gabriel recruits Jacqueline to seduce Yosef, Tariq's contact. She's madly in love with Gabriel, guilty about the death of his family and accepts the assignment so she can get close to him. Tariq realizes she's and agent and plots a suicide mission that will draw all the players in. Jacqueline becomes Tariq's traveling companion, and the end game begins. The action moves through Montreal to the US where Arafat and the Israeli Prime Minister are in town for a breakthrough in the peace process. CIA guy Adrian Carter, sleazy President Beckwith and former Ambassador / Senator Douglas Cannon from "The Marching Season" all have bit parts. Tariq disguised as a waiter delivering Arafat's prized honey is armed and alone in a room with him. Read on to find out who shoots whom and what Shamron was really up to. The control guy in a Silva novel always has ulterior motives, though Shamron's duplicity is nothing compared to Sir Basil Boothby in "The Unlikely Spy." All in all, I think this was Silva's best.
Rating: 
Summary: meh...
Review: fact/research heavy.
slow.
not that much happens.
not that good.
a few nice twists at the end.
better than "A Death In Vienna"
Ken Follett gives a fairer shake to both sides than DS
Rating: 
Summary: Where's the metal detector?
Review: Former Israeli spy Gabriel Allon has retired to become an art restorer. Then, his old adversary, a terrorist known only as Tariq, begins knocking off high-ranking Israeli diplomats and the head of "the Office," Ari Shamron (Ariel Sharon?) brings Gabriel back, who, in his turn, enlists the services of a ghost from his past and another Israeli spy, Jacqueline Delacroix, a Paris fashion model. Allon is moody and darkly handsome and spends most of the novel listening to his wire taps and traveling back and forth from London to Paris to touch base with Shamron the Puppetmaster. By the end of the novel... Allon still hasn't done anything worthy of his supposedly widespread notoriety within the spy community. He's quite passive. Most of the leg work, pardon the pun, is performed by Delacroix who seduces a Palestinian devotee of Tariq named Yusef. The nuggets dealing with the art are more interesting than the nominal intrigue, most of which is undercut by the scenes in which we find out Tariq is one step ahead of everybody (and always in such amazing disguises that not even his cronies recognize him). This takes the wind out of the sails of a lot of the momentum because you already know most of the "good guys" are toiling for naught. The final, fatal flaw comes near the end when Silva seems to throw all reason to the wind and has a character basically walk off the street into a Senator's home (and the Senator is hosting a well-known international figure) carrying a gun in his pocket. True, this novel was written before 9/11 but even so, where are the metal detectors? Where are all the Secret Service agents who are in great supply upstairs but seem to have nothing to do with the catering people going in and out of the building downstairs. It's a mess. This book came with a high recommendation but I have to say that I will not be reading any more Silva books after this.
Rating: 
Summary: Silva proves he is still a pro...
Review: Gabriel Allon is "the Kill Artist"; a former assassin who worked clandestinely for the Israeli government. When we first meet him he is living in a remote English seaside village and working as an art restorer, a cover he used frequently during his covert operations. He is soon called out of retirement by his former boss, Ari Shamron, head of Israeli intelligence, and a calculating man with his own agenda...one that may cost Gabriel his life. Ari needs Gabriel's talents to track down Tariq, an Palestinian assassin whose killing rampage is threatening the Middle East peace negotiations. Tariq and Gabriel have met before when Gabriel killed Tariq's brother in a very brutal manner, and Tariq avenged that death with a killing of his own...Gabriel's wife and son, making this a story of international intrigue and personal revenge. The stage is now set for a major showdown, but they must first cover three continents and weave through an array of cultures and characters to find each other. Gabriel is assisted by his former intelligence co-worker, a beautiful French girl named Jacqueline, whose family was killed in the Holocaust. Jacqueline is hesitant to join Gabriel on this assignment, but in the end it is love that prevails, and she plunges head first into Tariq's lair, a deadly trap that Gabriel may not be able to get her out of in time to save her life. What I love about Daniel Silva is his smooth and uncomplicated style. He has a "rhythm" to his writing that hooks you somewhere in the beginning and stays with you long after you finish the book. It took me a little longer to warm up to these characters, probably because there isn't a lot happening in the way of relationships as there is in his other book _The Mark Of The Assassin_. Everyone is hiding behind their own specific job and agenda. They're all business. Still, the plot is riveting and the pace is solid. 4 and 1/2 stars. Highly recommended. His protagonist doesn't quite involve the readers as in his past works but this is definitely worth a buy.
Rating:
Summary: Silva is a wonderful retreat for a rainy day
Review: Gabriel Allon is a retired operative of the super-secret Israeli spy agency Mossad. He has been working as an art restorer in London, utilizing skills he learned from his cover job while an assassin for the agency. He is sought out by the head of the Mossad, Ari Shamron, who is working outside his legal authority to take out Israeli enemies who are trying to disturb the delicate peace process taking place between his homeland and the Palestinians. He has a special assignment that he feels only Gabriel can successfully pull off: the elimination of the iconoclast Tariq, who has sworn a disruption of the peace talks and the death of Yassir Arafat. Shamron knows that Allon will have a hard time refusing. It was Tariq himself that had forced Allon out of the Mossad. Allon had been sent to kill a Palestinian that had taken part in the September massacre against Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics. The man was Tariq's brother. What we have then, is a story of personal revenge mirrored with the Palestinian/Israeli conflict. With a little cajoling, Shamron is able to convince a reluctant Allon to return to duty one more time. Allon is teamed with the beautiful Jacqueline Delacroix, a former agent herself who now works as a fashion model in Paris. Allon and Delacroix were once lovers. Delacroix has her own reasons for rejoining the Mossad: her real name is Sarah Halèvy, and her ancestors were killed in the concentration camps in Germany. For her, it's personal. Additionally, she wants out of the modeling business and the money Shamron promises her is quite enticing. Shamron lives by the motto of the Mossad: By way of deception, thou shalt do war. If you like your tales with a bit of good old subterfuge, this one's for you. This is probably one of the best thrillers I've read in quite some time. Silva is quite a talented master of plot and setting, hooking you with enough twists and turns with every flip of the page. I do hate it when writers give dialogue to living, breathing people like Arafat. It may be a convenient device, but it shows a lack of creativity. Better to mention true life in passing in fiction, and allow the reader to fully suspend his element of disbelief. Enjoy the fantasy, and leave the real world behind. Grade: A-
Rating:
Summary: A Sub-Par Non-Thriller From Daniel Silva!
Review: Gabriel Allon, one of the world's top art restorers, and former Israeli Intelligence Agent, is persuaded to return to action by his old mentor, the formidable Ari Shamron, Head of Israeli Intelligence. Allon has been living in Cornwall, England, working intensely on bringing a painting by Francesco Vecellio, brother of the great Titian, back to life. He is persuaded to leave the Vecellio and return to his old day job, to kill a man - Tariq. Tariq is the infamous leader of a Palestinian terrorist organization, who was responsible for the car bombing in Vienna, years before, that killed Allon's son and maimed his wife Leah. The radical Palestinian now plots to destroy the Middle East peace negotiations, which are presently in high gear. A French Jewish celebrity model, Sarah Halevy, A.K.A. Jacqueline Delacroix, is recruited to assist Allon. She had worked with him in the past, as his "bat leveyha," female assistant agent. They became lovers, and when the assignment was over, Gabriel returned to his wife and confessed all. Sarah/Jacqueline is still in love with him. Allon blames himself for the car bombing that destroyed his family. He believes that if he had not been unfaithful, his wife and son would never have accompanied him to Vienna, etc, etc.. Having read other suspense thrillers by Mr. Silva, I picked-up this book, hoping to enjoy another terrific read. Wrong! The shallow narrative and dialogue, are scattered and loose. The chapters are very short and insubstantial, and the author rapidly moves the action from Cornwall to Tiberias to Greece to Tel Aviv, Zurich, London, Amsterdam, etc., but not much happens except movement in trains, planes, boats and cars. Little is accomplished except lots of page turning by the reader. There is also time travel, in the form of various flashbacks, which serve to confuse whatever plot there is. The characters are not developed enough to form any real attachment to them. They all carry enough excess baggage to fill a cargo plane. Gabriel, with his lost family and need for revenge against Tariq; Tariq, who hates Allon for murdering his terrorist brother; Jacqueline with her grandparents killed in the holocaust and her unrequited love for Gabriel; everybody with mixed feelings for Ari Shamron. Oye...they all need intensive therapy! The action and plot do begin to move a bit faster on, or around, page 205. I barely hung-in that long. And even when things do pick-up, the plots and plans are not believable, nor very exciting. I would pass on this one and read another of Daniel Silva's much better novels instead.
Rating:
Summary: Silva is a great find....
Review: Good stories, easy to read, keeps you on the edge of your seat....
Rating:
Summary: A book about professionals who forget how to be professional
Review: I couldn't wait for this novel to end. I don't forsee the need to hire any assasins in the near future, but I know who I wouldn't want to hire if I needed any. All the plot twists and their eventual consequences were predictable. There was the reappearance of a former lover that triggered the main tragedy in the protagonist's life propeling him into retirement, there was the Boss who manipulated the protagonist in his own secret agenda, there was the protagonist coming out of retirement for one last revenge, there was the bad guy with a potentially fatal condition, it just goes on. I didn't care for any of the characters nor could I see what made them special as assasins. A main plot twist develops because the assasins can't bug a bad guy's apartment without nearly getting caught but still tipping him off. The female protagonist couldn't hide her emotions from the bad guy, but the scheme hinges on her abilities as a pro. The book is like a car with a sticky gas pedal, it speeds up then slows down, endlessly. The epilogue has no redeeming characteristics. There's lots better out there. Look at some of the espionage Lists on Amazon.
Rating:
Summary: This Silva fan was disappointed
Review: I enjoyed "The Marching Season" and "The Mark of the Assassin." I read the unique and brilliant thriller "The Unlikely Spy." With that much going for him, I was really looking forward to a crackling spy thriller in "The Kill Artist." Unfortunately, I was bitterly disappointed. I still love Silva's writing style, and I'll say that up front. His prose is easy to read; you'll consume large chunks of text in one sitting. However, his plotting in this novel is amateurish at best. A painter-master spy (Gabriel Allon) is a cool concept for a protagonist, but then you put him on a surveillance mission? The most exciting thing he does is reprogram an alarm clock! You think I'm kidding, but I guarantee it! So most of the action revolves around Jacqueline Delacroix, who is a supermodel on par with Cindy Crawford or Christy Turlington. And lucky for Jacqueline and Gabriel, the Palestinians never think to look on the cover of any magazine when they're trying to figure out who she is! No, but they happen to notice she's the same chick from some grainy photo of an operation that took place twelve years before! Crickey! One other thing I found annoying about this book is that the first three chapters do not use names for the main characters. Unfortunately, Silva thought it would be cool if he didn't give any of the characters names until later. He thinks it builds suspense, but to the reader it is aggravating reading about "the stranger" who paints, or "the man" who is trying to assassinate a Israeli foreign minister. The underlying moral value in the book is that people have many faces, both private and public. Nobody really knows someone else's identity. In the first chapters of the book, he tries to slam this home so that you feel like you know no one in the book. Things clear up later, but you have to be patient. Unfortunately, patience never pays off for the plot. The action is few and far between. When the climax comes, the result defies logic. The impact on the protagonist is vague. I don't want to spoil it for you, so I'll leave it at that. An untapped resource in this book is the Israeli Intelligence Chief Ari Shamron. He is the most intriguing figure as a gruff and calloused spymaster using agents as pawns, but he was under-utilized. I just can't put a positive spin on this book besides this: Silva has so much potential that I hope his next works harness the imagination we saw in "The Unlikely Spy."
Rating:
Summary: "What's the Big Deal?"
Review: I have reached Chapter 15 and am putting this novel down in frustration. I want an agent, editor or publisher to tell me why this book has gotten such good reviews. Each chapter has a new cast of characters who, more than likely, tell their story in flashback. Who wants to keep a roadmap of the cast of characters?
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