This week I read.....

The English Assassin by Daniel Silva

Those bemoaning Len Deighton's hiatus from Spy Fiction or Le Carre's excursion into non-espionage territory could do worse than to reach for Daniel Silva's Gabriel Allon series. The first Allon book, The Kill Artist provided all the requisite items that spy fiction fans relish in the genre: A globe-trotting hunt for a terrorist replete with chases, surveillance, exotic locations, double-crosses and a thrilling climax not to mention sex in the form of the beautiful model/agent Jacqueline Delacroix. All spies moonlight in Silva's book, the hero himself being far more interested in his other vocation as a restorer of priceless art.

But while The Kill Artist Sizzled, Assassin fizzles. It certainly starts out promisingly with Allon being summoned to the home of Swiss Banker Augustus Rolfe for an assignment to restore a painting. But what Gabriel Allon discovers after arriving at the banker's oppulent villa is beyond repair: the dead body of the banker with a bullet through an eye. Caught and interogated by a shifty Swiss Inspector, Allon is bailed out by his sometime boss, Israeli spy master Ari Shamron.
Shamron informs Allon that Rolfe had in fact asked for an agent of the Israeli Intelligence, presumably to divulge vital information that certain dark forces will stop at nothing to prevent. What follows is Allon's quest to uncover the truth aided by Rolfe's beautiful and temperamental daughter who's a world famous violinist.

Switzerland looms large in this book although descriptions of the countries' typically scenic locations are offset by the ugly truth that the Swiss collaborated with the Nazis during World War 2; bankrolling their war-time activities in exchange for priceless arts looted from Jewish owned museums.

It's the sole fascinating aspect of an otherwise pedestrian thriller that limps its way to a lame conclusion. Note that I haven't mentioned the titular character, a killer of English origin residing in Corsica. That's because Silva himself doesn't seem too interested about him , his character set up as the hired killer to terminate Gabriel and Anna, who then proceeds to disappear for much of the book and surfacing towards the end to do something completely out of character. Gabriel himself most improbably devolves from cool spy to Angry Jewish Man in the latter half as the Swiss-Nazi collusion becomes more apparent.

I have 3 more Allon adventures on my bookshelves. It was my intention to delve headlong into them right after this book. But I think I'll take a break from the cloak and dagger stuff for awhile as this thriller singularly failed to thrill.