The Messenger - Hardcover

Silva, Daniel

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0399153357 ISBN 13: 9780399153358

Publisher: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 2006

Synopsis

Gabriel Allon, art restorer and spy, has been widely acclaimed as one of the most fascinating characters in the genre and now he is about to face the greatest challenge of his life.

Allon is recovering from a grueling showdown with a Palestinian master terrorist, when a figure from his past arrives in Jerusalem. Monsignor Luigi Donati is the private secretary to His Holiness Pope Paul VII, and a man as ruthless as he is intelligent. Now, however, he has come to seek Allon's help. A young Swiss guard has been found dead in St. Peter's Basilica, and although Donati has allowed the official inquiry to determine that it is suicide, his instinct tells him that it is murder-and that his master is in grave danger. He has trusted Allon in the past, and he is the only man he trusts now.

Allon reluctantly agrees to get involved, but once he begins to investigate he concludes that Donati has every right to be concerned, as, following the trail from the heart of the Vatican to the valleys of Switzerland and beyond, he slowly unravels a conspiracy of lies and deception. An extraordinary enemy walks among them, with but one goal: the most spectacular assassination ever attempted.

Filled with remarkable characters and breathtaking double and triple turns of plot, The Messenger solidifies Silva's reputation as his generation's finest writer of international thrillers.

About this title

About the Author

Daniel Silva is the author of eight previous novels, most recently Prince of Fire. He lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife, NBC Today correspondent Jamie Gangel.

Reviews

The five previous spy thrillers featuring Gabriel Allon addressed topics including the Munich Olympics massacre, Yasir Arafat, and the Vatican. The Messenger, about global terrorism and Islamic fundamentalism, resounded just as loudly with critics. Fortunately, Daniel Silva has also written an ingenious, thrilling, and entertaining book with complex characters and settings, from London and Jerusalem to Rome, that serve the plot well. While one critic cited Silva's bias toward Israel, the majority felt that the author created characters with different perspectives and left readers to form their own opinions. In the end, they agreed that "Gabriel Allon remains one of the most intriguing heroes of any thriller series" (Philadelphia Inquirer).

Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.

Bestseller Silva continues to warrant comparisons to John le Carré, as shown by his latest thriller starring Israeli art restorer and spymaster Gabriel Allon. Ahmed bin Shafiq, a former chief of a clandestine Saudi intelligence unit, targets the Vatican for attack, in particular Pope Paul VII and his top aide, Monsignor Luigi Donati, who both appeared in Silva's previous novel, Prince of Fire. Shafiq, who now heads his own terrorist network, is allied with a militant Islamic Saudi businessman known as Zizi, a true believer committed to the destruction of all infidels. Gabriel's challenge is to infiltrate Zizi's organization, a task he assigns to a beautiful American art expert, Sarah Bancroft. Gabriel promises he'll protect her, but plans go awry, and by the end Sarah faces torture and death. While Sarah's fate is never in doubt, the way Silva resolves his plot will keep readers right where he wants them: on the edges of their seats.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

*Starred Review* A terrorist bombing in St. Peter's Square leaves hundreds dead, the Pope injured, and the Basilica a ghastly, smoking pile. This tragedy confirms what began in London weeks before when a traffic accident killed a talent scout for al-Qaeda, leaving his briefcase, filled with surveillance photos of the Vatican, in the hands of Israeli agents. Silva's series hero, Gabriel Allon, is at the center of this fast-paced, completely absorbing international spy thriller. Allon is an art restorer and sometime spy. While restoring Old Masters is Allon's passion (and a wonderful source of intriguing details about the art world), he is called back into service from time to time. Allon's double life began in the aftermath of the Olympic massacre in 1972, when he was recruited to hunt down the Israeli athletes' killers. His sense of urgency in thwarting terrorism was brought into play by the deaths of his wife and infant son in a car bombing 13 years before. What makes this series fascinating is the interplay between standard spy-thriller fare of glamorous locales (here, the action breaks in Rome, Venice, Jerusalem, Paris, and D.C.), double and triple crosses, and justified paranoia with the passionate, tragic figure of Allon himself. An engrossing and beautifully written contemporary spy thriller. Connie Fletcher
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: G. P. Putnam's Sons
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0399153357
• ISBN 13: 9780399153358
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 352