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Critics' Opinion:
Readers' Opinion:
First Published:
Mar 2002, 400 pages
Paperback:
Feb 2003, 416 pages
A taut, lightning-paced thriller rooted assuredly in fact: Switzerland's shameful WWII record of profiteering and collaboration with Nazi Germany.
The Unlikely Spy, Daniel Silva's extraordinary debut novel, was applauded by critics as it rocketed onto national bestseller lists. "Briskly suspenseful, tightly constructed . . . reminiscent of John le Carré's The Spy Who Came in from the Cold," said The New York Times. "Silva has clearly done his homework, mixing fact and fiction to delicious effect and building tension—with the breathtaking double and triple turns of plot—like a seasoned pro," praised People.
Now Silva has outdone himself, with a taut, lightning-paced thriller rooted assuredly in fact: Switzerland's shameful WWII record of profiteering and collaboration with Nazi Germany.
When art restorer and occasional Israeli agent Gabriel Allon is sent to Zurich, Switzerland, to restore the painting of a reclusive millionaire banker, he arrives to find his would-be employer murdered at the foot of his Raphael. A secret collection of priceless, illicitly gained Impressionist masterpieces is missing. Gabriel's handlers step out of the shadows to admit the truth—the collector had been silenced—and Gabriel is put back in the high-stakes spy game, battling wits with the rogue assassin he helped to train.
Tense, taut, expertly crafted, and brimming with unexpected reversals, The English Assassin is Daniel Silva at his storytelling best.
Switzerland
1975
Marguerite Rolfe was digging in her garden because of the secrets she'd found hidden in her husband's study. It was late to be working in the garden, well past midnight by now. The spring thaw had left the earth soft and moist, and her spade split the soil with little effort, allowing her to progress with minimal noise. For this she was grateful. Her husband and daughter were asleep in the villa, and she didn't want to wake them.
Why couldn't it have been something simple, like love letters from another woman? There would have been a good row, Marguerite would have confessed her own affair. Lovers would have been relinquished, and soon their home would return to normal. But she hadn't found love letters--she'd found something much worse.
For a moment she blamed herself. If she hadn't been searching his study, she never would have found the photographs. She could have spent the rest of her life in blissful oblivion, believing ...
Former President George Bush
Daniel Silva does his homework and puts his readers into the middle of very real life and death situations. But I have one major complaint about his writing: He's so darn good you can't wait for the next book to come out.
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