A Death in Vienna

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Summary: Holocaust justice
Review: Daniel Silva in his excellent and compelling novel "A Death in Vienna" resurrects his fascinating character, world renowned art restorer and sometimes Israeli secret agent Gabriel Allon.

At the behest of his former boss, legendary Israeli spymaster Ari Shamron, Allon travels to Vienna to investigate an explosion in the Office of Wartime Claims. A former colleague Eli Lavon was seriously injured and two young office girls were killed in the blast. Foul play is suspected. Vienna holds only unpleasant memories for Allon as that is precisely where his young son was killed and wife maimed in a car bomb meant for him.

Visiting his comatose friend Lavon in the hospital Allon meets an old man and Holocaust survivor Max Klein there. Klein had accidently encountered a wealthy, distinguished Austrian man in a cafe and recognized him as a notorious high ranking Nazi officer in Auschwitz. He reported this to Lavon who assured him that he'd investigate. The man named Ludwig Vogel, a wealthy indusrialist is presently financing the campaign for chancellor of Austria of Peter Metzler.

Allon soon learns that Vogel is actually Erich Radek, a Nazi war criminal responsible for numerous atrocities during Hitler's Final Solution. He surprisingly discovers that Radek, is part of the recollections of his mother Irene, also a mentally tortured Holocaust survivor. Allon has all the motivation he needs to bring Radek's involvement to the surface and sets out to accomplish exactly that. Along the way. unforeseen stumbling blocks impede his progress.

Silva is his continuing passionate saga of Gabriel Allon using the Holocaust as a backdrop, again proves his undeniably superior writing talent. He again fashioned a piece that was impossible to put down.

Rating:
Summary: An another outstanding effort
Review: Daniel Silva is fast becoming one of my favorite authors. Without giving the story away, Mr. Silva writes in a prose that is so clear that you feel like you have been transported to Italy, and have become a witness to the story. In short this is a must read suspense novel that the reader will find is well-plotted and well-written story.

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Summary: Daniel Silva closes his trilogy with the best of three....
Review: Daniel Silva is the author of six prior espionage thrillers; his newest is the third in a trilogy that explorse various phases of the aftermath of the Holocaust. His centerpiece, art restorer Mario Delvecchio, is, in reality, an agent of the Israeli government named Gabriel Allon. In the prior two novels, "The English Assassin" and "The Confessor", the collaboration of the Swiss bankers and the Vatican, in the aftermath of the world's worst act of genocide, are explored in modern-day settings.

Allon is the instrument of atonement that brings the past to light in each of the first two books, and his role is similar in "A Death in Vienna". A fierce and violent act, the bombing of The Wartime Claims and Inquiries office in Vienna, opens the novel. With two young girls dead and the head of the Claims office, Eli Levon, in a coma, Allon has no choice but to travel back to a city he would prefer to forget -- the city where his own wife and child were victims of a bomb some years before.

Allon's meeting with a Holocaust survivor, Max Klein, leads him to suspect an Austrian business mogul, Erich Radek. Lavon has been investigating Radek's ties to the Nazis based on Klein's account of a cold-blooded killing he witnessed. Radek has a new name, and his credentials have been washed through the CIA, and a red herring escape to Argentina.

The depth of this novel, compared to its predecessors, is in the personal tie in that Allon finds of Radek to his own mother, who barely survived two years in Auschwitz-Birkenau. Through her artwork, and the record of her testimony kept at Yad Vishem, the Israeli memorial center for Holocaust research, Allon learns the startling truth, that Radek, acting as the director of Aktion 1005, had an altercation with his mother on what has come to be known as the Death March from Birkenau.

In his mother's testimony:

"It has been twelve years. Not a day passes that I don't see the faces of Rachel and Sarah -- and the face of the man who murdered them. Their death's weigh heavily on me....on the anniversary of their murders, I say mourner's kaddish for them. I do this out of habit but not faith. I lost my faith in God in Birkenau."

The difficulty, and the importance, of Radek to modern-day Austria is in his blood ties to the strongest candidate for the chancellorship of the Austrian nation. Given his position, and the anti-Semitism that still flares in modern-day Austria, it is tempting for Allon's handlers to simply expose Radek; but in the end, Allon's plan to kidnap him and return him to Israel is the path that is chosen.

Daniel Silva has exactly the right spirit for his material. A consummate journalist, he ties his fictional account into true events - his research is impeccable. In spare and tense prose, he moves a large group of characters around an obstacle, developing subplots that are as complex as Allon's travel schedule. He is unafraid to tie in the Swiss banking complex, the Vatican and the CIA into the intended/unintended passage of Nazi war criminals into modern society, without the punishment they deserved, and without making reparations to the families of those they slaughtered.

The Aktion 1005 effort, under which the Nazis unearthed poorly disguised graves of Holocaust victims and destroyed the evidence in a systematic effort, was tied to famous Austrian criminal Paul Blobel, who was convicted and hanged at Nuremburg. Blobel went to his grave without ever revealing the details of Aktion 1005. It is not a stretch for Silva to set his stage with a fictional character who played a pivotal role in the coverup, much of which remains a mystery today.

Silva deserves his following; his plotting resonates with the readers, his action scenes and dialogue are compelling. He exposes the hidden Vienna and the haven that war criminals found in Argentina in the same way he has pointed it out in Munich, and in the Vatican. He accomplishes his goal of a well-paced and intricate thriller, interspersed with just enough history to make sure that we never forget.

Superb.

Rating:
Summary: Far From the Best
Review: Daniel Silva is the best thriller/espionage writer going today. He is a wizard at constructing nuanced plots that both entertain and surprise even the most veteran of thriller readers. His characters are delightfully dark and mysterious, but deep enough that the reader honestly cares about their trials and tribulations. It is a world of deceit and brutal statecraft, where only the truly underhanded survive. Perhaps it is to his disadvantage that Mr. Silva masters the shady world of espionage fiction so well that any deviation from perfection seems like a fall off. Were it by another author, A Death in Vienna would be a powerful work, but, with circumstances as they are, the book represents an inferior Silva effort.

A Death in Vienna leaves off where The Confessor ended, with the art restorer/Mossad hitman Gabriel Allon in Europe. Fresh off his discovery of long secret Nazi-Vatican ties, Allon is quickly brought back into action as an old friend is mysteriously attacked by a bomb wielding killer. Tasked by his mentor and tormentor, Ari Shamron, to finding the killer, Allon quickly becomes embroiled in a much wider conspiracy. Stories are told, witnesses are silenced, and Allon himself is targeted. Gabriel soon takes his search for the truth over three continents, only to find the truth of the entire situation lies in his own memory, and the story of his mother.

A Death in Vienna is the end of the so called "Holocaust" portion of Allon's life. As it turns out, the ghosts of the past are not as buried as we would like. A new power is rising in Hitler's ancestral country, Austria, and it is not exactly friendly to the Jewish people. The force's backers are a dark lot, but one in particular stands out. He is a powerful figure with a past of unimaginable violence, directly related Allon's mother's experiences. He, and others, will do anything it takes to make sure Allon and his allies never reveal the truth. In this effort, they will employ the services of the Clockmaker, a man who shares his time between twin loves; repairing antique clocks and killing people. Even broader forces want the truth to lay dormant, people that Allon once thought friends. Allon will have to employ every tactic he has ever learned in bringing down this legendary evil.

As every Silva story does, it sounds great on the surface. However, several failings really hurt this work in my eyes. The paramount problem is the predictability of the whole story. Nothing is really surprising, everything is pretty much given to the reader early on. The opposition is a fairly sorry lot, never living up to their graphically chronicled wartime atrocity. Even the meticulous killer, the Clockmaker never lives up to the mechanical ferocity somewhat inherent in his nom de guerre. By the end of the story, you really lose any malice or care you had for the various characters, as the plot seems to follow a very by the book approach. On the other hand, Allon is a wonderful character, and his relationship with Shamron is fascinating to read. Every great hero needs a great villain, an addition absent in this book. A Death in Vienna is an enjoyable read, but it lacks that real punch that Silva offers in such books as The Marching Season and The Confessor. Still, I wait impatiently for the next installment of the series!

Rating:
Summary: I can't give it zero, I guess...
Review: First of all I had JUST gotten done reading the Di Vinci Code and was looking for another book like it.

I saw this one at Barnes and Noble for 30% off (40% off with my card) and I read the jacket flap. I'm not sure it's the same story... NO WHERE on the flaps does it mention that the character is an Israli secret agent and that he's hunting down a Nazi war criminal. It talks about art restortion and the secrets he finds by revealing the layers off an old painting.

I have a feeling that the publisher feared they would not sell many books had they put what the story is REALLY about on the jacket. There are really no layers to all this... it's boring and I was waiting for more things to happen. MORE suspense more twists and turns and they weren't there. This is NOT a good book. In fact I would go as far as to say this is a bad book. I look forwad to finding more books like the Di Vinci code.

Rating:
Summary: My Least Favorite of the Holocaust Trilogy
Review: Gabriel Allon, art restorer/Israeli spy-assassin is back in the third installment dealing with the sins of the past. Allon is pulled from his art restoration project when a friend who is active is tracking down Nazi war criminals is the target of an assassination attempt. As his friend fights for his life, Allon delves into the reasons behind the attack. What he finds becomes personal when it appears that his Mother had encounters in Jewish prison camps in the WWII era with the very man who might be responsible for the assassination attempt. The book, while at times fast moving, seems to drag and be more predictable than most of Silva's books. I enjoyed The Confessor much more than this book.

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Summary: dry and predictable
Review: Good idea....bad story development, bad character development. I was disappointed.

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Summary: PAIN ON EVERY PAGE...
Review: I don't know much about Mr. Daniel Silva but it feels as he lived through the events or at least was exposed to stories told by people, who lived through the events described in the book.

This is a case, somewhat familiar, of a hunt for an old Nazi, who was able to escape the prosecution. Yes, this approach was used on a number of times by many good writers in order to tell the story of the war, pain, terror, suffering, survival and escape of the criminal, who played the system and the system protected him. All these books end up with some kind of a punishment but neither writer nor the reader are ever satisfied. Even the worst punishment cannot restore the wrong done to so many innocent people and it never returns the dead. But, nevertheless, the punishment is important and it has to be public in order for people to realize what happened and to what degree. Also we hope that it would never happen again but it happens on a smaller scale as local genocides and as the terror spread out by the militant Muslims. So, this book, as many others, is very important.

But what makes it different, standing out, personal? When I was reading this book I had the feeling that Mr. Silva was very personal. It was not just another thriller with the Israeli secret service and running around the world. There was a painful story in the foundation of the book. This story is so familiar to so many Jews around the world. Every Jewish family had members, who perished during the war and not fighting the enemy but being starved and beaten to death, by being killed in so many ways, by being gassed and burnt and by being violated even after death through the denial of what the Nazis did.

I believe Mr. Silva reached the "best so far" with this book. Keep writing, Mr. Silva. You are on the right way.


Rating:
Summary: Excellent ending to a 3 book series
Review: I had just finished reading the last/newest book from my favorite author Patricia Cornwell and needed something new. On her website she recommended this book. When I looked into it further I decided to read the first two in the series as well. In 2 weeks I read all 3 books, and I have 4 children and a full time job. All three books just can't be put down!! The characters are so well written that you forget the books are fiction (even though some of the book is based on reality). I could picture the whole scene in my mind. I would highly recommend all 3 of these novels. Daniel Silva is a first rate author in my book!

Rating:
Summary: Not his best, but still very good.
Review: I have been a hardcore fan of Silva since I discovered his novel "The English Assassin" in the spring of 2002. I was going through a difficult time in my life and his book helped me through it. Since I've re-read all his novels at least twice and must say I was dissapointed this time. Don't get me wrong, this is a well-crafted, intelligent spy yarn that nicely ties up Silva's trilogy, but this one seemed to move slower than usual and the plotting just wasn't very interesting. There is more interesting backstory & drama involving Gabriel's personal life, including things with his mother and the woman in his life, but like I said the actual mystery/spy story in the novel is his weakest yet. I feel that "The English Assassin" is still the best of the three, and they've gone downhill since. Now that Silva has gotten these Holocaust novels out of his system, hopefully he can go back and write something with more thrilling suspense like "The English Assassin" or "The Kill Artist", which in my opinion is his best Gabriel Allon novel.